AMHERST — For the second straight night, UMass came out flying to start the game. The difference Saturday was the Minutemen actually made that dominance count.
UMass didn’t finish its early chances in Game 1 on Friday and eventually had to climb out of a three-goal deficit against New Hampshire.
In Game 2, the top-seeded Minutemen didn’t give the Wildcats any chance to breathe, capitalizing on their first power play of the game less than five minutes into the contest. Cale Makar’s tally started an avalanche that led to four first-period goals and a dominant 6-0 victory over eighth-seeded New Hampshire to finish the sweep in the Hockey East quarterfinals.
“We were ready to go (Friday), we deserved to score in the first period last night, we had a lot of chances,” coach Greg Carvel said. “But it’s a big boost when your power play can go out there (and score). That’s one of the more effective PKs that we dealt with this year, so when they make that nice tic-tac-toe play and Cale snaps it in the back of the net, that’s a real boost. Especially after (Friday) when it took us almost 40 minutes to score our first goal, to score that quickly into the game, our bench got juiced up pretty much off of that.”
Once Makar’s goal went in, the Minutemen quickly pounced on the wounded Wildcats and put the game out of reach. UMass (28-8-0) started to crowd the crease around Mike Robinson and potted the loose pucks that bounced off the New Hampshire goalie.
Few players were as active around the net as Brett Boeing, who snapped a two-month scoring drought with a pair of goals. The senior has had several premium scoring chances over the past few weeks, but has been denied each time by a variety of reasons. It seemed like it would continue midway through the first when he took a puck hard to the net only to be stopped. But he stayed with his shot and poked home the rebound. He tapped home another rebound in the second period.
“I’ve had plenty of chances the last couple games to bury, so it feels good to get one, especially in my last home game here,” Boeing said. “Talking to the coaches lately, they’ve been wanting me to finish my chances harder and I’ve been working on it in practice. Fortunately, it went in.”
The Minutemen’s early offensive dominance turned into the type of defensive performance Carvel has been seeking. It was UMass’ third shutout in its last seven games – also its first in 50 Hockey East Tournament games – as the Minutemen made massive improvements in the neutral zone. They stymied the Wildcats (12-15-9) from clean breakouts and rushes into the offensive zone, a massive difference from the space UMass gave UNH on Friday.
“We definitely focused on a few different things and changed up the game plan a little bit,” Makar said. “Just coming in, we knew what we needed to focus on and our forwards did a really good job coming back on the back check. I think that helped a lot on the rush.”
When the Wildcats were able to put shots on net, freshman Filip Lindberg was up to the task and made his 18 saves look routine. Despite going long stretches without much action, Lindberg was sharp when called upon, most notably stuffing a short-handed breakaway late in the game to preserve the shutout.
Carvel made the decision to start Lindberg after sophomore Matt Murray was shaky to start Friday’s game, and the freshman repaid his coach’s confidence with a strong performance in net.
“He’s a goalie that when you see what he brings every day, he’s as consistent as anybody on our team,” Carvel said. “Whatever is thrown at him, I’m very comfortable. He can go 20 minutes without a shot and then get a breakaway and it doesn’t matter. He’s a gamer and he’s a tremendous kid. … He’s been waiting for the door to open for him and he took advantage of it (Saturday).”
The Minutemen will face No. 7 Boston College in the semifinals, at 7:30 p.m. Friday at TD Garden. The Eagles knocked off Providence in three games.