AMHERST – Two goals just 56 seconds apart helped the No. 16 UMass hockey team take down New Hampshire, 3-1, Saturday night at the Mullins Center.

Owen Murray and Cole O’Hara netted goals for the Minutemen midway through the second period in quick succession to stomp out UNH’s momentum after the visitors scored the game’s first goal. 

UMass (17-12-3) only managed 19 shots against the Wildcats — a season low — but didn’t surrender its 2-1 third period lead before Ryan Lautenbach deposited the empty-netter with four seconds left, giving the Minutemen four of six possible points against UNH (11-14-5) on the weekend.

“There’s been a lot of games this year that I’ve sat up here and said we deserved better. I’m not so sure that was the case tonight,” UMass head coach Greg Carvel said. “UNH played extremely well. I’ll say it again, Michael Hrabal will probably decide every game for us the rest of the way and he did tonight. 

“I think we had one shot on net, it felt like one shot on net in the third period,” Carvel said. “The second period we had a lot of chances, but I’m not sure why, but in the third period UNH took the game over and we were on our heels and [Hrabal] made a lot of big saves. It was the difference tonight.”

Hrabal concluded with 35 saves on the night, to improve his record to 15-10-3.

Nick Ring opened the scoring at 6 minutes, 28 seconds of the second period for the Wildcats as the centerman deked around Minuteman defenseman Kennedy O’Connor in the slot, then flicked the puck past Hrabal, to give UNH the 1-0 lead.

Carvel shortened his bench defensively following that goal, going to five defensemen, then four for most of the third period. Francesco Dell’Elce, Larry Keenan, Lucas Olvestad and Murray received most of the minutes down the stretch.

“It was great out of our guys on the backend tonight,” Murray said. “Everybody sucked it up. We weren’t feeling our best but we got the job done and this time of the year that’s what it takes.”

In addition to the equalizing goal from Murray — which came about on a point shot from Olvestad that trickled through Wildcats goalie Jared Whale (16 saves) with momentum in the crease before Murray sent it in — the Minutemen’s lone right-shot blueliner led the team with four shots on goal.

“Kennedy O’Connor got walked on the goal that they scored,” Carvel said. “So you’re not going to play if that’s the situation. We went down to five [defensemen]. [Assistant coach] Nolan [Gluchowski] makes those decisions. He did come to me and said I think I’m going to go down to five the rest of the way. Works for me, we need to win this game, whatever it takes.”

O’Hara wasted little time putting the Minutemen on top as the junior took advantage of a 2-on-1 situation and snapped in his 18th goal of the year. The Richmond Hill, Ontario native increased his point streak to 10 games with a goal and an assist following the final buzzer on Saturday. O’Hara’s assist (27) tied him for ninth place all-time for the single season record.

“I prefer shooting,” O’Hara said on his mindset during odd-man rushes. “Like [Friday] night, I had one [Friday] night and pretty bad play by me, but should have shot that one too.”

In the first game of the series in Durham 24 hour prior, UMass led 2-0 after 40 minutes, then 3-1 during the third period, but allowed UNH to tie it with a couple of third-period strikes.

The Minutemen were put in a very similar same situation on Saturday heading into the final frame and even though they bent in the third period to the Wildcats’ pressure, they didn’t break and snatched their seventh win on Mullins ice this season.

“It didn’t feel right, and I’m not sure why,” Carvel said. “We didn’t manage the puck at all, nobody could hold onto it. I’m not sure. Maybe a fragile group after last… again, we’ll take these points and run.”

The victory over UNH improved UMass’ Pairwise rating slightly as it now sits in 12th, which is likely good enough for an at-large bid into the NCAA Tournament.