FINAL SCORE: #2 UMass 4, Vermont 1
AMHERST, Mass. – The second-ranked Minutemen tallied a pair of power play goals and took a 4-1 win over the Catamounts Friday night at the Mullins Center in Amherst, Massachusetts.
 
UMass improves to 16-3-0 overall and 8-1-0 in Hockey East play. Vermont drops to 8-10-1 overall and 1-7-1 in conference play.
 
RELATED LINKS
Box Score
 
COACH'S QUOTE
"I thought we had a great road first period. We executed our game plan almost to a 'T'" head coach Kevin Sneddon said. "In the second, we were completely undisciplined playing against the best power play in the country and we had talked about that. That was probably the difference in the game."
 
HOW IT HAPPENED

• Sophomore Ace Cowans received a lead pass for a breakaway in the waning seconds of the first period, but UMass goalie Matt Murray (25 saves) managed to turn the shot aside as the buzzer capped a scoreless first period.
• Brett Boeing opened the scoring for the Minutemen at 4:08 of the second period. Bobby Trivigno found the senior in the slot from behind the Catamount net after his breakaway chance was turned aside by Stefanos Lekkas (26 saves).
• The Minutemen doubled their lead just over five minutes later following a penalty called on Max Kaufman. UMass sophomore Oliver Chau had time in the slot to fire a shot past Lekkas.
• After Conor O'Neil was handed a five-minute major and game misconduct for spearing late in the second period, UMass tallied its second power play goal of the night off the skate of Jake Gaudet to make it 3-0. A lengthy review upheld the goal.
• Liam Coughlin put the Catamounts on the board with his fourth of the season just six seconds into a Vermont power play at 6:46 of the third period. The senior won the offensive zone faceoff and tipped a Vlad Dzhioshvili past Murray as he cut across the slot.
• Transfer student Jacob Pritchard picked up the puck behind the empty Catamount net and roofed a shot past a UVM defender to make it 4-1 Minutemen with just over a minute left in the third.

UP NEXT
Vermont looks for the series and season split with the second-ranked Minutemen at 7:05 p.m. tomorrow night at the Mullins Center.
 
Handy Toyota is the presenting sponsor of the 2018-19 men's hockey season