Two empty-net goals for U-Mass
AMHERST, Mass. – The NMU hockey team rounded out opening weekend in Massachusetts, falling 4-1 to the No. 15 UMass Minutemen.
The Minutemen scored the lone goal in the first period, as Daniel Jencko converted on the game’s opening power play, giving UMass a 1-0 lead five minutes into the frame. Less than 24 hours after setting program records and sniffing the NCAA record books, William Gramme made 15 saves in the opening 20 minutes of play.
The second period featured the first NMU man advantage of the game (which was cancelled out seconds later on a call against the ‘Cats), the Minutemen having four power plays, and a late hit on Jakub Altrichter that saw him needing assistance being escorted off the ice. The Minutemen tallied its second goal of the game late in the period, as a shot from Landon Nycz with 36 seconds left found its way through a screen.
After a scoreless 17 minutes of the final frame, Caiden Gault scored his second as a Wildcat to bring the game within one. The Minutemen would score a pair of empty net goals in the final minute, and the game would end 4-1.
Tobias Pitka and Grayden Slipec both picked up assists on the Wildcat goal, the second on the season for both of them.
The Minutemen outshot the ‘Cats 46-32 thanks to a wide margin in power play opportunities, as UMass had six man advantages to the Wildcats’ two, one of which for the Green and Gold was only 13 seconds long before being whistled for another.
The ‘Cats held the advantage in the faceoff dot once again, winning 32 compared to 29, including a 29-18 advantage through the first two periods.
‘Cat Nips
- Gramme’s record-breaking weekend continued, as he set the NMU program record for most saves in a weekend series, another record that stood for 41 years, making 107 over the weekend (65 yesterday, 42 today).
- Previous record – 92, Jeff Poeschl vs. Wisconsin (Jan. 3 to Jan. 4, 1984)
- Gault has started his season with the Wildcats exactly how he would have liked, scoring a goal again tonight to give him goals in back-to-back games
- Slipec and Pitka both registered their second assists of the season
How It Happened
The Minutemen opened the scoring on the game’s first power play, as Jencko got the puck at the top of the right circle. The left-handed shot let go a wrister that beat a screened Gramme over the glove side.
The second goal came from the left sidewall, as Nycz walked to the top of the left circle and fired a seeing-eye shot through a screen that beat Gramme on the short side.
The Wildcats broke the shutout as Gault scored his second of the weekend with the goalie pulled. Gault corralled the puck at the left side of the net and shoveled a sharp-angle shot toward the net that snuck past Hrabel, who wasn’t sealing the post.
The Wildcats pulled the goaltender again, and Cam O’Neill chased down a clearance to deposit into the net. Another empty net goal from Lukas Klecka, and the game ended 4-1.
