AMHERST, Mass. - A two-goal night for senior Garrett Wait helped No. 10/9 Massachusetts hockey complete its weekend sweep of LIU with a 3-1 victory at the Mullins Center on Saturday night. The win moves the Minutemen to 15-8-2 on the season, while the Sharks fall to 8-17-3.
"Solid effort by the guys," said UMass head coach Greg Carvel. "Watching LIU, I think there a really well-coached team. They play hard and I think at the beginning our guys wanted it to be an easy sweep, but they had to earn it. The hard part was the amount of penalties they had to kill. We didn't get a lot of momentum tonight because of that. It was a very even game, but our guys played very well defensively and I thought Luke Pavicich did a nice job in his first game. Sweeps aren't easy and I'm very proud of the team, that's three wins in a row now. We've got to get hot this time of year and hopefully build some momentum here going into next weekend's play."
Wait put UMass on the board 3:48 into the first, redirecting in a shot by freshman Scott Morrow at the net front on the power play. Freshman Ryan Ufko picked up an assist on the play, as well.
Wait later made it a 2-0 margin at the 13:17 mark of the second period, firing home a one-timer from the left faceoff dot off a feed from sophomore Josh Lopina and junior Matt Kessel below the goal line.
The Sharks took one of the goals back before the close of the second, however. Max Balinson drove to the slot ripped a shot past Pavicich 18:29 into the frame.
Freshman Lucas Mercuri added an insurance tally for the Minutemen at 12:47 of the second period, deflecting in a shot from graduate student Matt Baker at the doorstep. Senior Colin Felix collected an assist on the play, as well.
UMass edged LIU in shots, 30-29 went 1-for-3 on the power play, while going a perfect 5-for-5 on the penalty kill.
In his first collegiate start, Pavicich finished with 28 saves and Kris Carlson had 27 stops for the Sharks.
The Minutemen will continue their homestand next Friday, February 11, when the squad will open up its weekend set against Maine at 7 p.m. at the Mullins Center.
