UMass hockey: Penalties prove costly for Minutemen in 4-1 loss to Northeastern

AMHERST — Three unanswered goals pushed Northeastern past the No. 19 UMass hockey team on Saturday at the Mullins Center.

Tied 1-1 late in the second period, an interference penalty, combined with a major spearing infraction from UMass, gave the visitors an extended 5-on-3 power play and the Huskies converted for the 2-1 lead before eventually tacking on two more for a 4-1 final.

“I thought we started playing well the last half of the second period and then discipline became a major issue,” Minutemen head coach Greg Carvel said. “We took [six] penalities tonight. We didn’t take a single major penalty last year, we took one tonight and gave them the game-winning goal. We’re a young team that makes young mistakes like that. An undisciplined team, which is different than last year.”

Minuteman freshman Egor Barabanov was assessed a major and game misconduct for spearing at 13 minutes, 29 seconds of the second period, after a Northeastern challenge that occured during the stoppage in which Charlie Lieberman was sent to the box for interference.

Penalties were a theme during Saturday’s showdown as both teams combined for 13 infractions and more than 40 minutes of penalties.

The Huskies went 2-for-6 on the man-advantage with a staggering 13 shots dispersed throughout, while UMass finished 1-for-7 with nine shots.

“We didn’t have a good start at all and it bled into our game,” UMass captain Jack Musa said. “Lot of penalties and I don’t think we reacted the right way after that. We just kept taking more. We weren’t disciplined at all the whole game.”

The Huskies snagged an early strike less than five minutes after opeing puck drop on a Miguel Marques deflection. Northeastern’s opening tally came at 4:49 of the frame.

UMass responded with the 1-1 equalizer on Gavin Cornforth’s second goal in as many games around the midway point of the second period. Cornforth made an aggressive move toward Northeastern goalie Sam Caulfield (34 saves) from the goal line and flicked the puck past the keeper near side at 11:32. Cornforth’s goal was the Minutemen’s only power play goal of the game.

“I think it’s something we definitely have to work on a lot, hopefully we start scoring more,” Musa said on the team’s performance on the power play.

UMass’ momentum quickly evaporated as the Barabanov and Lieberman penalties occurred nearly two minutes later, setting the stage for Huskies’ Amine Hajibi’s go-ahead 2-1 marker at 14:54.

Both team’s had three man-advantage opportunities in a hectic second period that also featured a penalty shot. Minutemen goalie Ethan Eskit (34 saves) denied Northeastern forward Jacob Mathieu with a blocker save at 3:39 of the period.

“There’s a lot of disruption,” Carvel said on the amount of special-teams time throughout the game. “We lost [Justin] Kerr first shift last night, we lose Barabanov tonight. We basically had two centermen now on the bench. It’s tough with all the penalties…we had power plays too, so it was a special teams game.”

The Huskies pocketed their first of two insurance strikes on a power play goal from Dawson Sharkey at 10:32 of the third. Northeastern gained the UMass zone cleanly, then quickly got into formation before Sharkey sent in the vistors third goal on a shot from the slot.

Trailing 3-1, UMass pulled Eskit with about two minutes left in the third and despite earning possession in the Northeastern end, it was the Huskies who salted the game away on Jack Pechar’s empty-netter at 18:13.

The Minutemen return to Mullins Center next Saturday for a non-conference clash with Stonehill.

Puck drop is scheduled for 6 p.m.