AMHERST, Mass. - A pair of goals from graduate student Samuli Niinisaari helped No. 14 Massachusetts hockey to a 3-2 win over No. 16/17 New Hampshire on Friday night at the Mullins Center. With the victory, the Minutemen improve to 17-9-3 overall and 10-7-2 in league action, while the Wildcats drop to 16-12-1 overall and 9-9-1 in league play.
"That's a big win," said UMass head coach Greg Carvel. "I really liked our first period. Then we took five penalties in a row. I thought that had a real effect on our group and took away any momentum. Then we came into third with the lead and I really liked our third period, how we played to secure the victory. Michael Hrabal continues to play very well, our penalty kill was outstanding and I really liked our power play in the first period. Although we didn't score on the power play, I thought our special teams were pretty good today."
Shortly after a power play expired in the first, Niinisaari put UMass in front, 1-0. After receiving the puck from junior Lucas Mercuri, Ryan Lautenbach found Niinisaari creeping in at the far post to deposit his second of the season into an open net at the 11:41 mark.
The Wildcats managed to tie the score at one apiece 4:23 into the second period. Alex Gagne played the puck down the wall for J.P. Turner, who sent a centering feed to Robert Cronin and Cronin tapped it home at the top of the crease.
The Minutemen pulled back in front with less than two minutes to play in the second period when freshman Dans Locmelis won a faceoff and set up an odd-man rush for Cole O'Hara and Jack Musa. Receiving the puck from O'Hara, Musa tucked it behind goaltender Jakob Hellsten for his 11th of the year at the 18:09 mark.
Niinisaari later secured the win with an empty net goal from Locmelis 18:12 into the third for his second of the night. Marty Lavins added UNH's second tally in the final seconds from Luke Reid and Stiven Sardarian.
The Wildcats finished the night with a 32-21 advantage in shots on goal. UMass went 5-for-5 on the penalty kill and 0-for-3 on the power play. Over the dots, UMass won 37-of-60, led by Locmelis' 12-for-16 (75%) performance.
Goaltender Michael Hrabal registered 30 saves in his 14th win of the season, while Hellsten stopped 18 for UNH.
The teams will be back in action tomorrow, February 24, squaring off in game two of the weekend series in Durham at 7 p.m.
