UMass hockey dominates in 3-0 win over No. 8 Northeastern

AMHERST — Needing some momentum to start what it hopes will be a climb up the standings in the second half, the UMass hockey team delivered a statement win.

The Minutemen controlled the last two periods and rolled to a 3-0 win over No. 8 Northeastern, Friday at the Mullins Center.

“I’m very proud of our team tonight,” said UMass coach Greg Carvel, who said it surpassed an earlier win over then-No. 8 Providence as the biggest victory of the season. “It was nice to beat Providence because we found a way to win, but tonight we soundly won that game. That was a complete 60-minute game. We had four lines playing well, the defense playing well and the goalie playing well. That’s as complete a game as we’ve had from our group.”

Northeastern (14-6-3, 10-4-1 Hockey East) came in needing a tie to match or a win to pass idle Boston College for first place. But it was the Minutemen (11-10-1, 5-6-1) who took advantage of an opportunity to climb in the conference standings as they jumped from ninth over Merrimack into a tie for seventh with idle UConn.

Matt Murray made 29 saves and capped his shutout by stoning Matt Filipe on a pure breakaway with 2 minutes, 3 seconds remaining. Carvel said his team needed one of its two goalies to seize the job for the second half of the season and Murray took a step toward that.

“Matt did a great job tonight. He looked like a calm steady goalie,” Carvel said. “We need one of our goaltenders to step up. I don’t want it to be a difficult decision every night for the rest of the season.”

Murray, who will start Saturday at Northeastern (8 p.m.), said his confidence got a boost.

“It elevates it greatly,” he said. “Getting a win like this in a performance like this helps personally and team-wise as well.”

Northeastern had more than twice as many shots at UMass in the first period (15-7), but neither team got on the scoreboard as Murray was sharp for the Minutemen in the opening 20 minutes.

UMass looked more cohesive right away and dictated play throughout the second period.

Mitchell Chaffee broke the scoreless tie, redirecting an Ivan Chukarov shot past Cayden Primeau to make it 1-0 with 8:41 left in the second period.

Public address announcer Matt Goldstein had barely begun announcing Biagio Lerario’s high-sticking major penalty when UMass scored a power-play goal to double its lead. Oliver Chau and John Leonard threaded perfect tic-tac-toe passing to Chaffee camped off the left-wing post. The freshman tapped in his second goal with 4:08 left to make it 2-0 after two periods.

The momentum carried into the third period as the Minutemen’s third goal looked like a two-dimensional alley-oop with Mario Ferraro sliding a perfect pass to the left-wing post where Austin Plevy slammed it by Primeau (29 saves), 3:23 into the period.

“The challenge now is to go into the rink tomorrow night and try to play the same way,” Carvel said.

Northeastern had two players ejected for major penalties for contact to the head. Carvel wasn’t happy about the hits his players took.

“We’ll be sending those into the league,” Carvel said. “Those things aren’t necessary. But it was signs we were able to frustrate their team.”