AMHERST — Fortunate.
That’s how Greg Carvel chose to describe UMass’ 5-1 win over Merrimack on Friday at the Mullins Center.
The 16th-ranked Minutemen were fortunate the Warriors didn’t take advantage of their sloppy play in the defensive zone. They were fortunate sophomore Matt Murray stood tall in goal, sliding post-to-post with effortless ease to make 26 saves. And they were fortunate their special teams once again controlled the game when someone was in the box.
It was a recipe that left the third-year coach unsatisfied with a victory in UMass’ first Hockey East game of the season.
“Obviously we’re very happy with the outcome and the score,” Carvel said. “But I thought we were sloppy tonight. I thought we were fortunate Merrimack didn’t expose us on a lot of the poor puck decisions in the neutral zone. We’re lucky Matt Murray, I think that was the best game he’s played here at UMass. He made a lot of big saves look real easy. Fortunately, our special teams was strong again and our goaltending was excellent.”
UMass (4-1-0, 1-0-0) also picked up a few lucky bounces at the right moments as both of the Minutemen’s power-play tallies were the result of some good fortune falling their direction. In the first period, Jacob Pritchard’s wrist shot snuck under the right arm of Merrimack goalie Craig Pantano and trickled into the goal to give UMass the 1-0 lead. In the third, freshman defenseman Marc Del Gaizo banked his shot off the far post from a near-impossible angle after Pantano fell near the top of the crease.
Those two goals were overshadowed by the two beautiful tallies from Brett Boeing. The senior center sniped a shot over Pantano’s blocker late in the first that doubled UMass’ lead. He then scored the Minutemen’s first short-handed goal of the season by roofing a backhand on a partial breakaway set up by Jake Gaudet blocking a pass in the neutral zone.
Boeing now has eight points in his last nine games dating back to last season.
“I came back and trained here all summer and I’ve been working hard to get those opportunities in the games,” Boeing said. “The summer work paid off and it’s been able to show up in the games.”
While the Minutemen were scoring on their chances at one end, Murray was making sure Merrimack (2-4-0, 1-1-0) didn’t take advantage of its chances. The sophomore made 13 saves in the opening period, including six on an extended 5-on-3 kill that helped preserve UMass’ 1-0 advantage.
While two men down, Murray controlled his rebounds efficiently and ensured the Warriors didn’t have any second chances. It was a theme that carried into the second period when Murray made a pair of kick saves and then went post-to-post to deny a third scoring chance on a different Merrimack power play.
“I thought I did my part and that’s all you can ask for,” Murray said.
Murray’s life was made more difficult by UMass’ sloppy play in the defensive and neutral zones. After the Minutemen killed off the 5-on-3 power play, they began to struggle exiting the zone cleanly. The turnovers led to some scary moments for UMass as it scrambled to defend after poor breakouts.
The only goal that found its way past Murray came after the goalie made a save on a breakaway that resulted from a turnover. After making the initial stop, Murray was unable to recover in time and Matt McArdle finished off the rebound.
“We definitely either tried to force plays or tried to make the fancy plays when it definitely wasn’t needed,” Boeing said. “If we go against a better team here, as Carvel said, they’ll definitely pay on those turnovers and hurt us in the long run. Overall, though, the thing that helped us was being able to score on those chances.”
The Minutemen’s victory despite sloppy puck management is an example of how the program has changed in Carvel’s third year. Both Boeing and Murray said the team took a lot of confidence from last week’s split against Ohio State that carried over into practice this week and into Friday’s win. That confidence has resulted in a team that now is discovering how to win games it might have lost in the past.
“We’re a strong hockey team and we’re now a team that finds ways to win,” Carvel said. “I think we’re a good offensive team, I think we’re a good defensive team, and we can still be sloppy and still come away with a solid victory.”