AMHERST – Disaster rapidly turned to opportunity, as the UMass hockey team upended No. 1 Denver 4-2 at the Mullins Center on Friday.
The No. 13 Minutemen put away three goals in the first period and frustrated the defending national champions. It was UMass’ eighth win against the No. 1 team in the country and the second against a non-league opponent (at Ohio State on Oct. 19, 2018).
“Everyone in that locker room believed that we would win, but at the same time we had a chip on our shoulder. I mean, it wasn’t long ago that this program was the number one team in the country, national champions,” UMass defenseman Scott Morrow said. “We had this weekend circled, and we were prepared to make a statement. We took advantage of a good opportunity.”
That outcome appeared far away and impossible in the first minute. Senior first-line Cal Kiefiuk checked Denver’s Massimo Rizzo from behind into the boards 38 seconds into the game and was sent promptly to the penalty box. Officials reviewed the call and assessed a game misconduct for checking from behind and ejected him. Taylor Makar served the major penalty for Kiefiuk — a role he also played last year — and replaced him on the first line to keep continuity through the rest of the lineup.
UMass (1-0-1) neutered the Pioneers power play and quickly generated a breakaway that Morrow finished with a shot that killed time.
“We used that penalty kill as an opportunity to gain momentum for us,” Morrow said. “It’s a huge swing at the start of that game that really put them on their heels. It ended up being something that was a negative, but we kind of turned it into a positive.”
The Minutemen regularly pounced on pucks and broke into open ice, and generated a three-on-one that freshman Kenny Connors tipped in for his first career goal at 3 minutes, 32 seconds. Reed Lebster assisted him.
“It’s kind of overwhelming with that big crowd, first night, but it’s just a weight off your shoulders,” said Connors, an LA Kings draft pick. “You can kind of play free after that, get it out of the way a little bit, but you kind of want to get back to work and finish the penalty.”
The Minutemen stayed on the clock. They created another three-on-one 1:38 later that Morrow finished in close to double the lead to 2-0. Lucas Mercuri and Ryan Lautenbach assisted the tally.
Those two shorthanded goals matched UMass’ entire total from last season.
“It seemed like we were getting a lot of breaks on the penalty kill. When I have the opportunity to jump up in the play, I’m not gonna turn that down,” Morrow said.
UMass then killed the penalty, sending the assembled Mullins Center faithful to further frenzy. The Minutemen continued their strong penalty killing start to the season, denying Denver on 3-of-4 extra attacker chances. UMass’ penalty kill unit is a suffocating 6-of-7 through two games.
“It was an unbelievable kill, and we’ve got new coaches who are in charge of the kill, but what a response by our guys,” UMass coach Greg Carvel said. “We thought we could come out and jump on them early, long travel for them, we were excited to play. Didn’t expect it to be that way.”
The scoring deluge continued once the Minutemen returned to full strength. Lucas Mercuri connected a cross ice pass to Cole O’Hara, and he ripped a shot off Denver goalie Magnus Chrona. He turned away that initial attempt, but Tyson Dyck followed the shot with a one-timer for his first career goal with 7:27 that put UMass up 3-0.
“They’re gonna score a lot of goals here,” Carvel said. “They just need experience. They’re good players, they deserve to play.”
The Minutemen debuted their power play at home 1:29 into the second period when Denver’s Sean Behrens went to the box for boarding. UMass converted it into a fourth goal 1:19 later. Draft pick defensemen Scott Morrow and Ryan Ufko tic-tac-toed the puck to Lebster at the front of the net, and he deflected it past Chrona for his second goal of the season.
Denver (2-1) appeared like it could have broken the shutout with 11:44 left when bodies piled up around UMass goalie Luke Pavicich in front of and in the net. The no-goal call was confirmed by review with the new over the net camera.
Pavicich, a sophomore, turned away a career-high 45 shots to earn his second career win. He waved his stick up to further hype the crowd after the final one.
“I didn’t really know what he was capable of. He didn’t play (as a freshman),” Carvel said. “Goalies are different. You want a goalie who you can trust in and he’s going to be consistent in everything he does. Pav has proven a lot to me, and I think, to his teammates.”
The Pioneers pulled Chrona with seven minutes remaining on the power play with Morrow in the box after a cross checking whistle, and Carter Mazur picked a corner with a wrist shot from Tristan Lemyre with 6:42 left. Chrona returned to the net after the power play but vacated the cage again with five minutes remaining.
The six attackers delivered again with 4:12 on the clock when Shai Buium unleashed a one-timer from the Hockey East logo near the blue line after strong puck movement to cut the deficit to 4-2.
The teams play again Saturday night at the Mullins Center (7:30 p.m.).
“We just want to keep on sustaining that pressure for (Saturday) and keep the puck out of our end as much as we can and kind of keep Pav away from the puck as much as possible, make it easy for him,” Morrow said.
Kyle Grabowski can be reached at kgrabowski@gazettenet.com. Follow him on Twitter @kylegrbwsk.