Despite leading point scorer Jack Musa’s absence, the No. 19 Massachusetts hockey team thumped New Hampshire 4-0 on Friday night through multiple reinforcements and commanding goaltending.
The Minutemen (18-11, 11-8 Hockey East) continued their momentum, winning their ninth game since the turn of the calendar and their first after a refreshing two-week break. The Wildcats (12-16-1, 6-12-1 HEA) continued to struggle in conference play and stayed at the bottom of the standings after Friday night’s loss.
New Hampshire had holes in its defense all night long, and with five minutes left in the first period, Francesco Dell’Elce found arguably the biggest one. The sophomore defenseman had the puck in his own defensive zone with four Wildcats gliding towards him.
With center Félix Gagnon flying in from his left and two other New Hampshire players sailing in from his right, Dell’Elce sent a pinpoint pass towards a wide-open Cam O’Neill, who took it in stride into the offensive zone. With Bo Cosman to his right and a defenseman in front of him, the Odenton, Md. native waited for the perfect moment to play the quick pass to his teammate.
With both Wildcat players squared towards O’Neill, he made the perfect feed to Cosman, who finished one of the easiest goals of his career on the back post.
“[Cosman] did what [Cosman] does,” head coach Greg Carvel said. “He plays fast with great energy and scored a goal, so maybe he did fill [Musa’s] role. He gives us great energy. We’ve missed that in our lineup. He’s got positive energy exuding from him and he plays fast.”
UMass got Václav Nestrašil, Cosman and Nick VanTassell back from injury and it didn’t take them long to make an impact in the win.
“I think for all of them it took a half a period or a couple shifts to get going,” Carvel said. “I thought VanTassell, once he got going, he was playing physical. I think we need that. Cosman scores a goal. You can see his speed on the ice. Nestrašil with his game, you can just see he is finding his comfort zone, so great to see all of them back.”
The Minutemen began their domination from the start. Carvel started the second line of Justin Kerr, Daniel Jenčko and Lukáš Klečka, and after two weeks without play, they waited just 41 seconds to break the deadlock.
In UMass’ first real attack of the game, Klečka fed the puck back to the point for Owen Murray. The senior captain skated along the wall without any sort of confrontation until he found himself to the left of Kyle Chauvette’s net.
Murray turned and sent a wrap-around pass towards the back post, which Klečka flipped into a wide-open net in front of a rabid student section.
“I’m very happy with [Klečka],” Carvel said. “He’s a freshman that’s probably been the most consistent of all our freshmen from day one to now. I really like that line. I think Kerr has been playing really well. Jenčko played really well tonight. That line was our best line in practice this week.”
UMass netminder Michael Hrabal continued his incredible second half of the season with a 21-save shutout. He tallied the 50th win of his Minuteman career and is the fastest goaltender in program history to do so. His night wasn’t busy; however, he had to make a big save on J.P. Turner’s penalty shot in the second period.
“I thought [Hrabal] was really sharp,” Carvel said. “In the second period, he had to make some good saves … We did a good job keeping the game on the outside, but they did have some nice looks. He’s on the top of his game, and he’s seeing the puck well.”
To round out the scoring, Larry Keenan added UMass’ first goal on the power play in 2026 in the first period, and Dell’Elce finished the winning effort off in the third period with a goal of his own.
The series will continue on Saturday, Feb. 21, in Durham at the Whittemore Center Arena. Puck drop is at 7 p.m. and can be streamed on ESPN+.
Ezekiel Altman can be reached at [email protected] and followed on X @EzekielAltman
