As good as the UMass penalty kill has been this season, the Minutemen could have used that extra skater at times on Sunday.
UMass trailed Merrimack by a goal with 2 minutes, 47 seconds left when defenseman Matt Kessel went to the penalty box for cross checking. UMass killed the power play, but that left the Minutemen with little time to net an equalizer as it fell, 3-2, at Lawler Rink in North Andover.
“It’s frustrating when you don’t know what’s a penalty and what’s not,” UMass coach Greg Carvel said. “I’m not at all calling the refs out, but I’m just saying there was two and a half minutes to go, I’m not so sure that was a call that needed to be made.”
The Minutemen (2-3-1) went to the box six times against the Warriors (1-1-0) and killed five of those penalties. (They have killed 23 of 25 penalties this season.) A slow start and three penalties in the first period set them back. Three penalties in the third stalled any type of attack.
“I didn’t think we came ready to play,” Carvel said. “First period, Merrimack, I thought, controlled the game. We took too many penalties, didn’t allow us to get things going. I thought second period we were better. Third period we played fine but three penalties, again, made it hard for us to mount a continual push.”
UMass fell behind in the first period before the teams went back and forth in the second.
Carson Gicewicz tied the game 27 seconds after the first intermission with his first goal for the Minutemen. Oliver Chau and Jake Gaudet had assists for UMass, but Merrimack answered about three minutes later.
Cal Kiefiuk’s power-play goal at 6:49 tied it again. Marc Del Gaizo and Aaron Bohlinger had assists, but the Warriors made it 3-2 at 10:06.
Merrimack had a goal erased within the first three minutes of the first period when UMass goalie Matt Murray was run over following a save on a rush. The Warriors struck first on the power play as Zach Vinnell took advantage of a Chase Gresock screen to beat Murray at 11:07 of the first.
For the first time all season one goalie played both games in a series for UMass. Murray finished with 19 saves.
“We told the goaltenders this year that we don’t want to just go back and forth,” Carvel said. “We want somebody to own the net and we felt that Matt played really well (Saturday) night and instead of just going back to Fil Lindberg we gave Matt the chance to own the net.”
OPENER — Freshman Josh Lopina scored a power-play goal late in the second period, and the Minutemen added two third-period goals for a 3-1 victory over the Warriors at the Mullins Center, Saturday. The win snapped a three-game winless streak for UMass. It was Merrimack’s season opener.
“We knew playing through COVID that certain nights teams were going to be at distinct disadvantages and tonight that was obviously the case,” Carvel said after the game. “Merrimack was very short on their bench and they made it a heck of game. I give them a lot of credit for their effort to keep it close when it probably shouldn’t have been.”
Del Gaizo (two assists) returned from injury and had an assist on Lopina’s goal. Oliver MacDonald added a second helper.
Sophomore Eric Faith scored his first collegiate goal 6:30 into the third for a 2-0 lead. Faith redirected a Colin Felix shot.
Merrimack cut the deficit in half at the 13:16 mark, but UMass added an empty-netter to put the game away.
Bobby Trivigno found the net from Lopina and Gicewicz.
Murray made 16 saves for the Minutemen.
NEXT UP — UMass is scheduled to play a home-and-home with Boston University on Friday and Saturday. Hockey East will likely rescheduled that series this week. BU paused all team activities on Thursday due to a positive COVID test within the program.
Mike Moran can be reached at mmoran@gazettenet.com. Follow on Twitter @mikemoranDHG.
