AMHERST – The University of Massachusetts men’s hockey team scored the first two of the night, but No. 13/12 Boston University responded with the following four unanswered to rally past UMass, 4-2 on Wednesday night at the Mullins Center.
The setback leaves the Minutemen at 8-7-2 on the year, 2-5-2 in Hockey East, while the Terriers improve to 9-6-1 overall, 3-4-2 in league action.
“The difference in the series, I think the first game, discipline was an issue for BU,” UMass coach Greg Carvel said. “And then tonight, discipline was an issue for us. We can’t give that team five power plays, and it came back to bite us. Then, there were some young mistakes on the blue line. But for five of six periods, I really liked our team against a really good team in our league.”
UMass opened the scoring 1:41 into the first period when junior Kenny Connors intercepted a pass in the offensive zone to set up a score by sophomore Jack Musa. Mathieu Caron turned Musa’s first shot aside, but after a goal-mouth scramble, Musa put his second shot in the net at the back post. Daniel Jencko picked up an assist on the play, as well.
The Minutemen doubled their lead at 13:09 into the second period courtesy of sophomore Aydar Suniev’s 10th of the season. Connors sent the puck up the ice to spring junior Cole O’Hara and Suniev on the rush, and O’Hara fed Suniev for the finish.
BU cut its deficit in half at the 17:35 mark of the second with a power play goal from Devin Kaplan. Cole Hutson set up a shot by Cole Eiserman that was saved by UMass netminder Michael Hrabal, but Kaplan was there to put in the rebound.
The Terriers leveled the score at 2-2, 8:49 into the third period. Cole Hutson collected a puck from Jack Hughes and Quinn Hutson and skated to the high slot, sending a shot through traffic to the back of the UMass net.
Moments later, Cole Hutson struck again, converting on the man advantage for Boston University off a setup from Jack Harvey and Devin Kaplan at 10:07, giving the Terriers a 3-2 lead.
BU added an insurance marker 12:48 into the third, with Quinn Hutson tucking a pass from Eiserman and Cole Hutson around Hrabal to complete the scoring.
The Terriers out-shot the Minutemen 33-24 on the night and went 2-for-5 on the power play, while UMass was 0-for-3.
Hrabal logged 29 saves for the Minutemen, and Caron made 22 stops for BU.
The Minutemen will be back in action on Saturday, Dec. 28, when they will play host to Simon Fraser in an exhibition matchup at the Mullins Center at 6 p.m.
