BOSTON, MA – The #11 University of Massachusetts hockey team suffered a 4-2 defeat at the hands of northeastern in their Hockey east opener Friday night at Matthews Arena. The Huskies capitalized on early opportunities and a late empty-net goal to secure the victory, dropping UMass to 2-1-0 overall and 0-1-0 in conference play, while Northeastern improves to 2-1-0 and 1-0-0 in Hockey East.
The loss marks a slow start for the Minutemen in conference competition, highlighting early-season struggles with consistency. Despite a strong performance from goaltender Michael Hrabal and a late push with goals from Bo Cosman and Jack Musa,UMass couldn’t overcome a two-goal first period deficit and Northeastern’s efficient scoring.
“Rough first period for us tonight,” said UMass head coach Greg Carvel. “Similar to Stonehill, not a great start, something we’ll to take care of, but thought Michael hrabal was outstanding. He gave us a chance to make the game close. We came out in the second period, the first shift, we were in the zone and buzzing, and then the puck comes to blue line and we get a bad bounce and they get a breakaway. That was tough. The last two periods, I thought we played pretty well, but bottom line is we didn’t look like the team that I usually see from umass, we didn’t compete at the level we usually do. If it wasn’t for Michael Hrabal, that game’s not even close tonight.”
Northeastern opened the scoring 1:49 into the first period with a goal from Griffin Erdman, assisted by Amine Hajibi and Jack Henry. Joe Connor extended the Huskies’ lead to 2-0 at the 1:12 mark of the second period, capitalizing on a turnover.
UMass responded with a goal from junior Bo Cosman at 13:09 of the second, his first career goal, assisted by cam O’Neill and Lucas Ölvestad. However, Northeastern quickly regained a two-goal advantage as Giacomo Martino scored at 17:14, assisted by Tyler Fukakusa and Jacob Mathiew.
In the third period, junior jack Musa scored his fourth goal of the season on the power play at 8:30, finishing a feed from Daniel Jencko and Francesco Dell’Elce, bringing UMass within one. Northeastern sealed the win with an empty-net goal from Dylan Hryckowian at 19:38.
Northeastern finished with a 33-27 shot advantage, and UMass went 1-for-2 on the power play. Michael Hrabal recorded 29 saves for the Minutemen, while Lawton Zacher stopped 25 shots for Northeastern.
