UMass hockey: Minutemen offense erupts in 5-1 win over RIT

AMHERST — The No. 18 UMass hockey team’s offense broke through at last in its 5-1 win against RIT at the Mullins Center on Saturday.

In their previous three games, the Minutemen had tallied just three goals, however in the series-finale against the Tigers, five different goalscorers found the back of the net in UMass’ first win of the season.

“When we play the right way, [our] talent shows,” Minutemen head coach Greg Carvel said. “It’s little things. I really believe that, since the start of the season we just wanted things to be easy…I think you saw tonight, a lot more habits, details were done the right way and lo and behold, our skill-guys are scoring goals because they’re not cheating the game, they’re playing the right way.”

Senior Jack Musa led the Minutemen in points with four assists, while freshmen Maxim Masse and Egor Barabanov combined for two goals and five points. The trio made up UMass’ top line on Saturday.

“I thought we clicked well last game as well, just chances didn’t go in,” Barabanov said. “It felt like a breakout game was coming. Glad it happened tonight.”

Freshman goalie Ethan Eskit earned his first collegiate win in the process, notching 22 saves.

“We give up, still, too many high-end scoring chances for my liking, but [Eskit] made some saves [Saturday] look easy that really settled the game down for us at times,” Carvel said.

Most of Eskit’s stops occurred during the first period as RIT tilted the ice in its favor for the majority of the opening frame. The Tigers tossed 14 shots toward UMass’ netminder in the first, with only one crossing the goal line when Nick De Angelis tucked one in around Eskit off the rush with 11 seconds left in the period.

RIT’s only goal of the night brought it to a 2-1 game at the time, before the Minutmen potted three unanswered strikes in the second period.

Sophomore Coleson Hanrahan started the second-period scoring for UMass, scooping up a bouncing puck just outside the right faceoff circle and firing it five-hole through Tigers goalie Collin Mackenzie (41 saves).

“Honestly, I closed my eyes, I thought I went top-left and guys told me it went five-hole I was like ‘oh whatever.,'” Hanrahan said. “But as long as it went in the back of the net.”

About three minutes later, sophomore Vaclav Nestrasil upped the Minutemen’s lead to 4-1 with a power-play marker at seven minutes, 41 seconds. Nestrasil found a seam right in front of Mackenize, corralled a nifty feed from Barabanov and in one motion, curled the puck through the RIT goalie’s pads and in.

Masse rocketed home his first collegiate goal at 15:19 of the second for UMass’ fifth and final goal of the affair. Last year’s CHL Player of the Year posted up in the slot during another man-advantage opportunity for the Minutemen and executed a clean one-timer from Musa to push it to 5-1.

UMass finished the night 2-for-4 on the power play.

“The power play, there were some direct conversations today about shooting the puck,” Carvel said. “We were just over-passing [on Friday].”

The Minutemen hadn’t converted on the power play in any of the first three games.

Sophomore Larry Keenan opened the scoring for UMass at 16:27 of the first period following a great pass from sophomore Lukas Klecka. Barabanov then made it 2-0 less than three minutes later, taking advantage of blown D-zone coverage from RIT as the St. Petersburg, Russia native walked right down main street and sniped it past Mackenzie.

Barabanov leads the Minutemen with two goals.

“He’s been really strong on his skates,” Carvel said of Barabanov. “His talents are easy to see. He’s competing, he’s on his feet, he’s not getting knocked off pucks as easily as I thought he would. He’s a fun player to watch.”

UMass (1-2-1) return to Mullins next week for another two-game homestand when it welcomes Northeastern.

Puck drop for Friday’s matchup is scheduled for 7 p.m.

Dell’Elce’s last-second strike salvages tie Friday

Sometimes you just got to fling pucks on net.

That’s exactly what sophomore Francesco Dell’Elce did as regulation was expiring during Friday’s opener as the junior defenseman scored with 0.5 seconds left in UMass’ 2-2 tie.

The game eventually went to a shootout, which the Tigers took in five rounds, but it went down in the official record as a tie. While not as satisfying as a win, the Minutemen were staring their third straight loss directly in the face before Dell’Elce’s long-range dart snuck in before the buzzer.

“You can’t leave it to that last minute to try and win a game,” Dell’Elce said. “Fortunately enough we got the goal, but I think if we capitalized on a few chances earlier in the game then we wouldn’t even have to be in that sort of situation.”

UMass scored the game’s first goal early in the first period when Jack Galanek twisted a backhander into the cage seconds after their first power-play opportunity of the game commenced.

RIT responded before the period concluded, tying the game 1-1 on a 2-on-1 tuck from Camden Bajzer.

The Minutemen were awarded a power play two minutes into the second, but they couldn’t convert. The Tigers pounced on a poorly-timed neutral-zone pinch from freshman defenseman Barrett Dexheimer, and scored the go-ahead goal near the midway point of the period off the stick of Lucas Romeo.

Despite outshooting the visitors 15-3 in the third period, UMass appeared destined for a letdown loss before Dell’Elce’s miracle marker.

Tigers goalie Jakub Krbecek was fantastic, finishing with 50 saves, including six in the 3-on-3 overtime.

Eskit had 20 in the tie.