AMHERST — UMass had Hockey East’s 11th-ranked power play entering Friday night’s game, but the man-advantage was sharp all night and helped push the Minutemen to a 5-4 upset of 12th-ranked Notre Dame at the Mullins Center.
The UMass offense — at even strength and up a man — was helped by the return of senior Ray Pigozzi, who hadn’t played in almost a month. He had the Minutemen’s first and fifth goals.
“The power play was excellent tonight and the biggest factor was getting Ray Pigozzi back,” UMass coach Greg Carvel said. “His offense was really missed. He really makes that line go and that line was excellent tonight.”
Pigozzi was glad to be back.
“Being back with the guys every day has been great,” Pigozzi said. “For the first couple periods I was a little rusty. … I’m thrilled to be back and really glad we got the win.”
UMass (4-7-2, 2-5-1 Hockey East) led 3-0 after two periods before the Fighting Irish came to life.
Notre Dame seized momentum immediately in the final period. Andrew Peeke collected the long rebound off Bobby Nardella’s shot and launched a shot past UMass goalie Ryan Wischow (21 saves), 68 seconds into the third.
Just over three minutes later Boston Bruins draft pick Anders Bjork sniped the top-right corner of the net off the faceoff to make it 3-2.
The UMass power play scored again on a two-man advantage with 12:03 left to regain some breathing room. From the right wing corner, Austin Plevy flipped the puck off Irish defenseman Dennis Gilbert and it pinballed into the net to make it 4-2.
Plevy said he was trying to feed Steven Iacobellis.
“If it went through to Steve, I’m sure he was going to bury it, but it happened to take a good bounce,” Plevy said. “I’ll take them any way they come.”
The Irish kept charging, but the Minutemen were able to answer. Nardella made it a one-goal game again with 8:23 remaining, but Pigozzi scored off the faceoff to make it 5-3 with 7:14 left.
Bjork scored again with 3:39 remaining to make it 5-4, but Notre Dame never found the equalizer.
“We’ve been working on trying to close out games,” Iacobellis said. “We finally did a good job tonight.”
It was the first win in four games (0-3-1) for UMass.
“Hopefully we can start stringing some games together,” Pigozzi said. “I think it’s a start. Hopefully we can get on a roll.”
The teams will play again Saturday at the Mullins Center at 7 p.m.
“I thought this was another real solid game by our team tonight,” Carvel said. “In the last four games, I’ve been very happy. We haven’t come out on the right side of the scoreboard in most of those games, but tonight was an extension of the effort we had.”
UMass took a 1-0 lead on a pretty power-play goal just past the midway point of the game. From just outside the right wing faceoff circle, Plevy fed Iacobellis about 10 feet off the left post. As the defense and goalie Cal Petersen focused on him, Iacobellis somehow threaded a pass to Pigozzi parked off the right post. He tapped the puck into the open goalmouth with 9:32 left in the second period.
Moments after Notre Dame (7-6-2, 3-3-1) came inches away from tying the game when Jake Evans hit the post, the Minutemen doubled their lead. The rebound from Riley McDougall’s shot from just inside the right point, bounced first off Niko Hildenbrand’s leg as he crashed the net. It caromed back off of Petersen, but Hildenbrand, who’d been pushed down, tapped in the rebound from his knees with 5:45 left in the second to make it 2-0.
With his passing prowess proven, Iacobellis put his scoring skills on display. The UMass senior captain stepped around two defensemen crossing through the slot and backhanded the puck past Petersen on the power play with 3:22 remaining to make it 3-0 after two periods.
NOTES — Former UMass coach John Micheletto, who is now a special assistant for Notre Dame, was back at the Mullins Center for the first time since being dismissed in March.
Junior Dominic Trento, freshman Shane Bear and sophomore Callum Fryer each missed the game with undisclosed injuries. Their return time is uncertain. Sophomore Kurt Keats, who was suspended for one game by Hockey East, will be back Saturday.
The game started a busy 36 hours for the Mullins Center staff. After Friday’s hockey game, they had to put down the basketball floor for Saturday’s 1 p.m. game against Central Florida and then pick it up again for the 7 p.m. hockey game later that night.
They’ll put the floor down again for a 1 p.m. Sunday women’s basketball game.
Matt Vautour can be reached at mvautour@gazettenet.com. Get UMass coverage delivered in your Facebook news feed at www.facebook.com/GazetteUMassCoverage