Sophomore forward Oliver Chau netted his first goal of the season 3 minutes, 4 seconds into overtime, lifting No. 4 UMass to a 3-2 win over No. 18 Princeton in a non-conference hockey game, Saturday night at the Mullins Center.
The victory extended the Minutemen’s winning streak to a nation-best eight straight and ties the program record for consecutive wins. The Tigers fell to 3-4-1 overall following the loss.
“We deserved to win tonight,” said UMass head coach Greg Carvel. “It came harder than we wanted it to. It was one of those games where we probably could have scored five or six goals and I felt like Princeton was pretty opportunistic. Whenever we made a mistake, they were creating scoring chances. Winning in a different way for our group, to gut it out and win overtime and I’m very happy for Oliver Chau. We needed him to get off the off the schneid and score a goal. That’s as good a 60 minutes as we’ve played this year, so, I’m very happy with the victory.”
UMass ended the opening period with an offensive flurry. Freshman Bobby Kaiser carried the puck into the Princeton zone off a feed from Ty Farmer and Matt Murray and fired a shot past Ryan Ferland 18:48 into the first.
Just 26 seconds later, sophomore Cale Makar increased the lead to 2-0, stripping a Tigers’ defender of the puck and skating in alone on Ferland to net his sixth of the season.
Princeton struck back with two goals in the second period, and the teams skated through a scoreless third period to force OT.
UMass pressured in the extra frame and sophomore Mario Ferraro pounced on a loose puck in front of the Princeton goal and found Chau at the top of the crease for the tap-in game-winner.
The Minutemen finished with a 46-25 shot advantage, while both teams were scoreless on the power play, UMass was 0-for-4 and the Tigers were 0-for-2.
Netminder Matt Murray improved to 8-0-0 on the year after making 23 saves. Ferland finished with 43 stops for Princeton.
The Minutemen resume Hockey East play Friday when they host UConn at 7 p.m. at the Mullins Center.
Amherst 3, Babson 2 — Joey Lupo, Steven Mallory and Jack Lloyd scored as the Mammoths (2-2-0) won at Babson Park, Sunday.
Geneseo 4, Amherst 1 — Mark Esposito scored, but the Mammoths fell at home, Saturday.
UMass 59, Fairfield 40 — Bre Hampton-Bey had 18 points plus four steals, four rebounds and three assists, and Hailey Leidel had a double-double (17 points, 12 rebounds) as the Minutewomen (5-2) closed the Brown University Turkey Tip-Off, Sunday.
Paige McCormick added 11 points.
On Saturday, UMass beat Brown, 90-61.
Leidel (eight rebounds) and Hampton-Bey (seven rebounds) each had 18 points. Anil Soysal added 15 points, while Jessica George had 12.
New York University 59, Smith 48 — Katy McClellan had 11 points and 10 rebounds, while Katelyn Pickunka (Westhampton) added 10 points off the bench, but the Pioneers (4-1) fell at home, Saturday.