AMHERST, Mass. - A two-goal night from freshman Tyson Dyck helped propel No. 15 Massachusetts hockey to a 3-0 victory over Brown at the Mullins Center on Tuesday night. With the win, the Minutemen improve to 9-7-3 overall, while the Bears fall to 4-10-2.
"I thought it was a really solid game," said UMass head coach Greg Carvel. "We're still giving up breakaways and some odd-man rushes. I'd really like to clean that up, but the thing that I like is our young guys are really starting to come around. Tyson Dyck and Cole O'Hara I thought were really good tonight. Our defense is banged up. If you're healthy, you're playing right now. It will be good to get (Ryan) Ufko back. I like the way we're trending, I just think we're still giving up more chances than we should. I know we were outshot tonight, but a lot of those shots were from the outside. It was a good 60 minutes. It felt like the momentum never really got out of our hands and I've seen a lot of guys games' getting better, so it's all positives for me."
With the game still scoreless midway through the second period, Dyck put UMass on the board with a power-play goal at the 8:23 mark. Sophomore Scott Morrow sent the puck to senior Cal Kiefiuk in the right faceoff circle and Kiefiuk fed Dyck at the top of the crease for a quick redirection past netminder Mathieu Caron.
Dyck followed with his second of the game shortly after, deflecting in a shot by freshman Cole O'Hara off an offensive zone faceoff win by freshman Michael Cameron 10:53 into the second.
Morrow then completed the scoring with an empty net goal at the 19:31 mark of the third period, blocking a shot and then flipping the puck into the air and down the length of the ice.
Massachusetts goaltender Luke Pavicich turned aside all 33 he faced for the Minutemen to pick up his second shutout of the season as UMass was outshot on the evening, 33-27. The Minutemen went 1-for-4 on the power play and 2-for-2 on the penalty kill.
UMass will return to action on Saturday, January 7, taking on Boston College in a non-league Frozen Fenway matchup at 6 p.m. on NESN from Fenway Park in Boston.
