Sophomore goaltender Matt Murray tied the program records for goaltender wins in a season and career shutouts
Murray, Massachusetts Shut Out UConn, 3-0
Sophomore goaltender Matt Murray tied the program records for goaltender wins in a season and career shutouts

AMHERST, Mass. - No. 2 University of Massachusetts hockey scored a pair of power-play goals and added an empty net tally in the third to roll to a 3-0 shutout of UConn on Thursday night at the Mullins Center. The win moves the Minutemen to 24-6-0 overall and sets a new program record for Hockey East wins in a season at 16-4-0, while the Huskies fall to 10-19-2 and 5-14-2 in league action.

"That was a really solid win for our group, I really liked our first period," said UMass head coach Greg Carvel. "We outshot them 18-4 and created a lot of scoring chances. But our focus the past couple weeks has been on defensive play, I think we had four or five shutouts last year, and we hadn't had one this year. I thought we played pretty well defensively, didn't give them a lot of speed up and down the ice. I thought we did a good job getting pucks to the net at the same time. It was a really solid win. I thought (Matt) Murray did a really good job, even though he wasn't tested too much. I thought he was really good on the saves he had to make. We challenged him to elevate, get back to where he was earlier in the year and I thought he was tonight. It was a really good sign for our group to get a shutout under our belts and need to continue focusing on defense the rest of the way."

After controlling the play from the outset, UMass converted on its first power play opportunity of the night to go up 1-0, 10:58 into the first period. Sophomore Mitchell Chaffee tapped the puck to classmate Cale Makar at the goal line and Makar curled out in front to backhand a pass to sophomore John Leonard at the far post for the tally. Makar's helper was his 25th of the year, tying Thomas Poeck's single-season record for assists by a defenseman. Leonard's goal was his seventh in the past nine games and extended his streak of power-play goals in three straight games.

The Minutemen converted with the man advantage once more in the second period as sophomore Mario Ferraro drove home a feed from freshman Ty Farmer and senior Brett Boeing through traffic from the high slot for his first of the season at the 16:12 mark.

Freshman Marc Del Gaizo later capped the scoring with an empty net goal at 16:33 of the third.

UMass finished the night with a 36-21 shot advantage and went 2-for-4 on the power play, while the Huskies were 0-for-3.

Sophomore Matt Murray made 21 saves en route to his 19th win of the season and fifth career shutout, both which matched program records. Tomas Vomacka had 33 saves for UConn.

UMass returns to action on Saturday, Feb. 23, when the squad will head to No. 10/11 Providence for a 5 p.m. matchup with the Friars.

Game Summary

Thursday, February 21, 2019

0
3
Game statistics
21 Shots 36
0 / 3 Power Plays 2 / 4
6 / 12 PIM 5 / 10
10-19-2 Records 24-6-0
GOAL SCORERS
UConn Massachusetts
John Leonard (13)
1st/10:58 PP GW
Mario Ferraro (1)
2nd/16:12 PP
Marc Del Gaizo (11)
3rd/16:33  EN
GOALTENDERS
UConn Massachusetts
Tomáš Vomáčka
59:01, 33 Saves, 2 GA
(L, 5-7-0)

Empty Net
0:59, 1 GA
Matt Murray
59:46, 21 Saves, 0 GA
(W, 19-4-0)

Empty Net
0:14, 0 GA