AMHERST — The UMass coaching staff knew what John Leonard was going to attempt when he collected the puck along the boards with 18 minutes, 9 seconds left in the third period.
Even from across the rink, they sensed his determination to turn what seemed like an ordinary opportunity to chip the puck deeper into a scoring chance. And that’s exactly what the Amherst native did to put his team ahead for good.
Leonard sidestepped Northeastern’s Tyler Madden with a quick change of direction then dipped his shoulder as he passed the stick check from T.J. Walsh. The only question was whether he could beat Craig Pantano, a query he answered with sniper-like precision over Pantano’s glove hand to put UMass into the lead again.
It was the play that set the tone for the final 20 minutes as the third-ranked Minutemen closed out a weekend sweep of No. 10 Northeastern with a 4-2 win at the Mullins Center Saturday night.
“We’ve seen some really nice goals here, but I think that’s the best one I’ve seen,” coach Greg Carvel said. “That’s just pure skill. He’s a gifted offensive player and there’s not many kids at this level who can do that. When he got that puck on the boards, we all knew it was probably coming, he gets focused and determined like that and he’s so fast, he’s got the fast hands, strong kid. I don’t think any of us were surprised he was going to attempt it, to pull it off is something else.”
It wasn’t the only feat of skill that Leonard pulled off for UMass (6-1-0, 2-1-0 Hockey East) against the Huskies. In the final seconds of the first period, Jake McLaughlin poked the puck away from Julian Kislin in the defensive zone in what looked like a simple defensive play. But as the puck skittered out to center ice, Leonard raced to pick it up and accelerated past the two Northeastern defenders chasing him. He pushed the puck ahead of him once then took one touch to control it before rifling off a shot over Pantano’s glove for the game’s first goal.
For both goals, Leonard was quick to credit his teammates for their work to set up his team-high sixth and seventh goals of the season. On the second goal, Leonard said it was linemates Jack Suter and Bobby Trivigno who made the hard plays to open the ice for him to score the game-winner.
“I picked it up off the wall, Sutesy bumped it up to the top there,” Leonard said. “I was able to capitalize on a little bit of room that they gave me and was able to catch the goalie a little bit low and put it over his shoulder. Sutesy and Trig created that as well, they create a lot of space out there.”
UMass dominated the first period with a strong start and carried that effort over into the second period. Yet, the inconsistencies of a young team dressing eight freshmen began to plague the Minutemen. The teams combined to take 10 of the game’s 11 penalties in the second period, including UMass putting Northeastern on the power play four times in the second period.
With the game becoming a battle of special teams, UMass faltered and lost its two-goal advantage in a span of seven minutes. The Huskies (4-3-1, 1-2-0 HEA) scored a power-play goal after the Minutemen failed to clear the zone for a full minute. Then they took advantage of a lazy UMass power play and scored on an odd-man rush in the final 10 seconds of the period to tie the game.
“Special teams are a really big factor in our league and you can never get caught sleeping even when you’re on the power play,” Leonard said. “They took advantage of a turnover we had on the offensive zone on the power play and we didn’t get enough guys back, but we just got to stay on top of them. When we stay 5-on-5, we’re a tough team to beat.”
The second period stood in stark contrast to the first and third periods when the Minutemen completely dominated the ice. UMass not only outshot the Huskies 26-7 in the first and third periods combined, it held a 45-11 advantage in attempted shots in those two stanzas. In the middle frame, Northeastern attempted 19 shots and landed 11 on junior goalie Matt Murray, while UMass tested Pantano on just eight of its 13 attempts.
Carvel said the difference was an indictment on the UMass power play, which was 0-for-4 with seven shots for the game. He said the Minutemen dominated the game when it was at even strength, but they struggled when up a man.
“We got on the power play and we stopped working,” Carvel said. “We do better 5-on-5 in the offensive zone than we do on the power play. We don’t battle for the puck, we want it to be easy, (but) 5-on-5, we hold the puck in there for 30 seconds at a time. Get on the power play and nobody wants to work for the puck. Our power play is pretty much ineffective, but 5-on-5 we were great.”