TROY, N.Y. — The goal for UMass on Sunday was to simply find a way to win.
The first game after the winter break is always tricky for teams, especially when they have to travel in a nonconference game. But all that mattered for the ninth-ranked Minutemen was doing enough to score one more goal than RPI and riding back to Amherst with another victory.
It wasn’t pretty as both the Minutemen and the Engineers skated off the rust from the layoff, but UMass accomplished what it wanted and left with a 5-3 win over RPI.
“It’s good to get that one over with and get in the win column,” senior captain Niko Hildenbrand said.
No period summed up a post-hiatus college hockey game than the third period in which goals came at a rapid rate as the ice began to open up for both teams. Perhaps freed from the desire to not make a mistake, both UMass (13-4-1) and RPI (6-10-1) traded goals back and forth in a chaotic, dizzying swing that left no time for anyone to blink lest they miss a goal.
In a six-minute stretch in the middle of the period, the teams combined for five goals with the first four coming less than three minutes apart. UMass took the lead three times in that span, but those first two advantages lasted just 72 seconds and 30 seconds, respectively, as RPI scored on the next shift after the goal.
“That’s because of the break,” UMass coach Greg Carvel said. “Both teams are off and it allows for erratic play. I didn’t think we were tight in the defensive zone, and they probably feel the same way. Both teams scored by getting to the net.”
Yet each time the Engineers tied the game, the Minutemen redoubled their efforts on the attack. It took less than a minute after RPI tied the game at 2-2 for UMass to reclaim the lead. Then it took a little more than three minutes after the Engineers knotted it at 3-3 for Hildenbrand to stake the Minutemen to the lead for good.
“More than anything, it shows the character of this team,” Hildenbrand said. “It shows that no matter what’s thrown at us, we can find a way and that’s what we did.”
Perhaps the best news for UMass was who scored the goals against RPI, the role players Carvel has been waiting to step up since the beginning of the season. The Minutemen’s top-three scorers were still involved – Mitchell Chaffee, John Leonard and Oliver Chau all had assists – but it was different faces finishing the puck around the goal.
Jack Suter tied the game in the second period for UMass, collecting his own rebound and flipping it into the net. RPI took a 1-0 lead on the power play against the run of play in the first period. In the second period, it was Reed Lebster, who crashed the net to finish a pristine pass from Leonard camped behind the net. Matt Kessel tallied the third goal and Niko Hildenbrand scored the fourth and fifth goals for his third career multi-goal game. The quartet combined for just 10 goals entering the game.
Lebster’s goal was a much-needed tally for a struggling power-play unit that has converted on just 15 percent of its chances entering Sunday. With Zac Jones out of the lineup while representing the United States in the 2020 IIHF World Junior Championships in the Czech Republic, the Minutemen rolled out a new top group of five against the Engineers. The unit didn’t have much time to practice with the holiday break and didn’t end up doing much on the first two advantages.
UMass made some adjustments on the power play to free up Chaffee and Leonard to put more shots on goal, but it all started to click on the third power play of the game. Chaffee’s shooting lane was blocked from the point, so he cycled the puck below the goal to Leonard, who sat patiently behind the goal surveying the situation. RPI chose not to pressure the Amherst native behind the goal and UMass created different types of movement around the crease before Lebster finally skated in unguarded and finished the feed from Leonard.
“We talked with Chaffee about the power play and we both were a little frustrated that we weren’t getting pucks to the net,” Carvel said. “We decided to change things up to set up and give Leonard and Chaffee a chance to shoot the puck and they did that. That unit is probably our five best power play guys, have them all on the ice and let them find ways to score. That’s not a set play where he goes behind the net, that’s just good power play guys finding ways to score.”
Matt Murray made 20 saves for the Minutemen. Alec Calvaruso stopped 32 for RPI.