Comeback Falls Short For No. 2 Hockey In 4-3 Loss At Maine

Team	1	2	3	F
UMass	1	0	2	3
Maine	1	3	0	4

UMass

Maine

ORONO, Maine – No. 2 University of Massachusetts hockey closed a three-goal deficit to one in the third period, but fell short of a comeback in a 4-3 loss at Maine on Saturday night. The Minutemen (19-5-0, 11-3-0 HEA) peppered Black Bears' (9-12-3, 5-6-3 HEA) goaltender Jeremy Swayman with 56 shots, the most shots on goal for a UMass squad in a regular season game since 2014.

"I thought the first period was pretty even and then we get the penalty shot to open the second," said UMass head coach Greg Carvel. "I thought that was a big turning point and then the five-minute major, obviously, was the biggest turning point. I give my team a lot of credit. We hadn't been down three goals I think this year going into the third period on the road and I wanted to see what we were made of. I challenged them and they came out and played a great third period. To me, for a small rink, that was a wild west game."

Maine opened the scoring 7:31 into the first when Emil Westerlund knocked the puck home from Canon Pieper and Patrick Shea off an offensive zone faceoff win for the Black Bears.

Sophomore John Leonard pulled the Minutemen level before the first intermission, depositing a drop pass from senior Jacob Pritchard and junior Jake McLaughlin into the Maine net on the rush at the 16:03 mark.

Leonard had a chance to put UMass on top after being awarded a penalty shot in the opening minute of the second period, but his attempt was turned aside by Swayman.

Then at the 5:52 mark, the Minutemen found themselves killing a five-minute major, which the Black Bears converted on just seven seconds in with a tally by Alexis Binner to pull back in front, 2-1. Eduard Tralmaks added another on the major to extend the Maine lead to 3-1.

The Black Bears took advantage of another power play opportunity later in the period to go up 4-1 with Brady Keeper redirecting a puck from Mitchell Fossier and Alexis Binner at 13:56.

Pritchard took one back for UMass, rocketing home his seventh power-play goal of the year from the slot off a feed from freshman Marc Del Gaizo and sophomore Mitchell Chaffee 7:29 into the third.

Minutes later, Chaffee made it a one-goal game with a shorthanded tally after junior Jack Suter caused a Maine turnover in the neutral zone, bringing the score to 4-3 at 9:23 of the final period.

UMass out-shot the Black Bears 19-4 in the third and had a host of chances down the stretch, including a power play with 1:30 left, but was unable to come up with the equalizer.

The Minutemen ended the contest with a 56-34 advantage in shots and went 1-for-5 with the man advantage, while Maine was 3-for-5. Swayman recorded 53 saves for the Black Bears and sophomore Matt Murray turned aside 30 in net for UMass.

UMass will be back in action next Friday, February 1, when the squad will close out its four-game road stretch at Boston University at 7:30 p.m.

Scoreboard

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Players Mentioned

Mitchell Chaffee

Marc Del Gaizo

John Leonard

Jake McLaughlin

Matt Murray

Jacob Pritchard

Jack Suter

Team Stats

Pritchard Jacob

Chaffee Mitchell

Leonard John

Del Gaizo Marc