AMHERST – The No. 20 UMass hockey team dropped its third and final game against Vermont this season, falling  3-2 on Sunday afternoon at Mullins Center.

Nick VanTassell put the Minutemen ahead halfway through the first period, 1-0, but the Catamounts scored three straight goals before Lucas Mercuri added one 6-on-5 with 30 seconds remaining in regulation, as UMass fell to 6-6-2 on the season.

“Kind of a broken record, once again I feel like we probably should have deserved to win,” Minutemen head coach Greg Carvel said. “I thought we played hard.”

UMass went 0-1-1 in its series against Vermont in Burlington on Nov. 8-9.

VanTassell's second goal of the season on Sunday came after the sophomore forward won a net-front scramble and smacked in the loose puck past UVM goalie Axel Mangbo.

“It was just a faceoff play that was kind of a battle,” VanTassell said. “One thing we've been working on is kind of getting to the net-front, trying to get better positioning on their defensemen. [It] was kind of a lucky bounce and kind of kept whacking at it and it went in.”

Mangbo was active all game for the Catamounts (3-6-3) as the sophomore goalie had 38 saves, with a bulk of those coming during the first and third periods.

“[Our] first and third periods were pretty strong, I think we out-shot them 32-9 in those two periods,” Carvel said. “That goaltender has played really well against us for two games. I give him a lot of credit.”

Mangbo picked up a 26-save shutout against UMass in the last meeting between both squads.

Just over two minutes following VanTassell's strike, Timofei Spitserov evened the score, 1-1, after a great look from Jens Richard just outside the Minutemen crease.

The Catamounts took a 2-1 lead on an Isak Walther mini-breakaway at 18:49 of the first. UVM defenseman Luca Munzenberger cleared the puck high off the glass and it went right to Walther, who flew the zone and got behind the UMass defense, before swerving around Minutemen goalie Michael Hrabal with a deke.

Similar to Friday night's game against Harvard, UMass was out-shot during the second period versus Vermont, 10-7, yet it did not allow a goal. Hrabal was forced to make 10 of his 16 total saves in the second.

“You look at our record, it's win-loss, win-loss, so maybe that speaks to the second period,” Mercuri said. “We have good first periods lately and second periods have been not too great. We're trying to figure that out, but other teams are going to have pushes.”

Once again, the Minutemen responded in the third period with numerous chances, but it was Vermont that scored the game-winner on an empty UMass cage, courtesy of Walther's second of the contest.

The Minutemen pulled Hrabal with 3:22 left in the game and sent a six-forward unit out, which basically played the rest of the time.

“We had the look,” Mercuri said. “I missed a goal prior to the one we scored, which is unfortunate, their goalie played a good game. But we got the looks, we just couldn't bury [them].”

Mercuri's goal mirrored VanTassell's as the UMass assistant captain went right to the front of the UVM net and cleaned up a rebound chance on Dans Locmelis' initial shot.

Unfortunately for the Minutemen, time was not on their side at that point. UMass couldn't complete the comeback in a game it held the advantage in shots, 40-19.

UMass will next host Army in a post-Thanksgiving matinee on Friday. Puck drop is set for 4 p.m.