The No. 19 Massachusetts hockey team played with desperation, battling for a 5-2 victory over Lowell in the final bout of a three-game series. After head coach Greg Carvel said that the Minutemen (17-11, 10-8 Hockey East) lacked desperation in Friday’s game, they came out with energy in the first period.
“I didn’t want to go into [a] two-week break in a two-game losing streak, so there’s desperation to win this game,” Carvel said. “And we needed that. We didn’t show up last night. And it’s tough … but we’ve come a long way since Jan. 1.”
In the previous two meetings, the River Hawks (10-18, 6-12 HEA) scored first, but it was UMass who opened the floodgates in the first period with two goals separated by less than 30 seconds, just five minutes into the game.
Lowell was in its own end waiting for the best opportunity to break the puck out. Following a stretch pass to Mirko Buttazzoni, Owen Murray waited in the neutral zone, then stepped up to steal the puck, but it began to get away from him. Daniel Jenčko, leaving the zone, was there to stop the puck perfectly for the defenseman to cleanly take the puck in, with just one defender between him and the goal.
The captain had a lane straight to the goal, but Josh Mori threatened to cut him off before he would be able get a shot off. Instead, Murray cut right around Mori, forcing the River Hawk defender to do a full turn on the spot, allowing for enough separation for the Manitoba native to rip a shot past the left side of Austin Elliot.
This season, Jack Galanek has been the main man in the circle for UMass, with 123 more faceoff wins than the next highest coming into the weekend series.
The freshman center won the puck back to Jack Musa on a face off, and Musa took very little time to settle it before swinging a shot towards the net. The puck hit a body in and fell right in front of the crease. Quick to react, Galanek found it on his backhand and knocked it in. After review for potential goalie interference, the goal stood for the Massachusetts native’s first even-strength goal since Nov. 14.
The River Hawks spent over 11 minutes of the game with an extra skater, but the Minutemen neutralized the attack and generated some offense of their own.
“[On the penalty kill], I like that Michael Hrabal looked like he could see all the pucks,” Carvel said. “There were pucks, you know, banging around in front of the net, [and he] battled hard to keep those pucks out of the net.”
In the third period, while Lowell was on the power play, a misplaced pass allowed Larry Keenan to break the puck out on a 3-on-1. Keenan dragged TJ Schweighardt over to him and played a last-minute pass across the ice to Musa. The junior, now alone on the breakaway, took the puck down and fired a well-placed shot blocker-side to put the Minutemen up by two.
Keenan improved to seven points in seven games, registering an assist on Justin Kerr’s goal, who extended his goal streak to four games. With those two points, the Detroit Red Wings prospect surpassed his freshman year point tally of 11 in ten fewer games.
“I’d say [producing points] kind of just helps build confidence for sure,” Keenan said. “Like obviously you don’t know you’re [going to] get a point, but definitely [with] making plays, you feel better.”
UMass is off next weekend and has the opportunity to rest up and potentially get some injured players back. Its next games are on Friday, Feb. 20, at the Mullins Center and on Saturday, Feb. 21, up in Durham, NH. Both games will be at 7 p.m. and streamed on ESPN+.
Myles Donato can be reached at [email protected] and followed on X @myles_donato.
