UMass hockey: Jack Musa scores shootout winner, Minutemen take 5 of 6 points against UConn

AMHERST — When it became apparent the No. 19 UMass hockey team was headed to a shootout against Connecticut on Saturday night at the Mullins Center, head coach Greg Carvel huddled up with his coaching staff behind the Minutemen bench. It was UMass’ first shootout of the season, so Carvel had to decide who to throw over the boards for the one-vs.-one battle that would award the winning team an extra point in the Hockey East standings, based entirely on what he had seen in practice to that point.

Naturally, the Minutemen’s leading goalscorer, Jack Musa, would be one of the first three called upon, right?

Wrong. Carvel went with freshman Jack Galanek first–who probably would have scored had his stick not snapped in half as he was shooting–then sophomore Daniel Jencko–who scored–then sophomore Larry Keenan–who was stopped.

With Jencko’s goal evening up the shootout 1-1, since Huskies’ Jake Richard beat UMass goalie junior Michael Hrabal seconds before Jencko’s attempt, surely Musa would be fourth, right?

Wrong. UConn goalie Tyler Muszelik didn’t go up against Musa until the seventh round of the skill competition, but once he did, the Minutemen junior slipped a shot five-hole through Muszelik’s pads, earning the second point of the night for UMass, in a game the Huskies outdueled the hosts for most of regulation.

“Just so you know, when we threw [Musa] out there it felt like all the fans were like, ‘oh, way to go coach, figuring it out.’ He doesn’t like to go. He tells us he doesn’t want to go.”

Given how Musa’s first attempt of the season resulted in a clinching goal, don’t be surprised if he changes his tune on shootouts from now on.

“That was surreal, I’ve never heard the Mullins that loud,” Musa said. “I got scared a little bit before I even grabbed the puck because of the noise, but it was an awesome feeling after I saw it go in.

“I use that move on [Hrabal] a lot at practice,” Musa added.

Hrabal was the only reason the game reached a shootout as the Utah Mammoths draft pick was excellent against UConn, setting a new career high with 50 saves in Saturday’s shootout win–which will officially count as a 3-3 tie.

“It’s part of the game,” Hrabal said. “I’m there to stop the puck. It doesn’t matter if it’s 10 or 50 shots, [I’m] trying to help the team win a game.”

The Minutemen were in good shape after 20 minutes as they held a 1-0 lead thanks to freshman Justin Kerr’s sixth goal of the season at 18:37.

The ice quickly tilted toward UConn in the middle frame, who scored the tying goal 2:10 in, then proceeded to pelt Hrabal with 25 total shots in the period.

“I didn’t mind our first period, thought it was fairly even, [got] a lead, then the second period the game fell apart on us,” Carvel said. “Took a couple penalties, UConn ramped it up.”

Huskies’ Joey Muldowney earned the 1-1 equalizer, then Trey Scott gave the visitors their first lead of the night at 2-1 toward the end of the period.

UMass captain Lucas Olvestad made sure to send his team into the intermission even 2-2 though, snapping home a beautiful goal from the slot at 19:14, for his fifth of the year.

As good as Olvestad was feeling at the tail end of the second, those emotions quickly vanished when UConn’s Jake Percival’s wraparound bid caromed off Olvestad’s skate and past Hrabal, putting the Huskies ahead, 3-2, 3:02 into the third.

Exactly 30 seconds later, Musa made sure UConn’s momentum was short lived as the Orange Park, Fla. hammered home his 15th of the season on a wraparound try by junior Nick VanTassell that morphed into a perfect setup feed.

Musa’s marker that made it 3-3 held through three-on-three overtime, which didn’t contain much action, other than a partial breakaway from freshman Vaclav Nestrasil.

Once the shootout began, it took a while, but Musa capped off a five-of-six point weekend for the Minutemen in style.

“We can play against any team, we just got to be ready,” Hrabal said on the emotional state of the team after taking a majority of points against the Huskies. “Sometimes it’s hard to play a second game after you win by a lot.”

UMass took the first game of the series, 5-1, in Connecticut on Friday night.

Next up for the Minutemen is a Thursday night clash with No. 10 Boston College at Mullins.

Puck drop is set for 7 p.m.