AMHERST, Mass. – Looking at the stat sheet, it was a game Maine clearly should’ve won.
The Black Bears significantly outshot Massachusetts, 37-22, won the faceoff battle and killed all four UMass power plays, including a pair of five-on-three situations.
But as Maine coach Red Gendron said after the game, that was only half the story.
What the statistics failed to show was the numerous mistakes that led to a 3-2 nonconference loss at the Mullins Center Friday night.
It started with the Black Bears leading 2-1 with roughly 10 minutes to play when an overstayed shift forced Gendron to call a timeout to rest his players. Then at 10:27, a defensive breakdown left Steven Iacobellis with an opening in the slot to bury a shot past Sean Romeo [19 saves] to tie the game at 2-2.
Shane Walsh broke the tie at 17:02 with his second goal of the night. Again, the Minutemen can thank Maine for the perfect scoring opportunity.
Iacobellis intercepted a Black Bears’ pass in the offensive zone to give UMass possession of the puck. The problem was Maine’s skaters seemingly didn’t realize how quickly the puck changed hands and was starting to break out into the rush. That gave Iacobellis enough time to find space to find Walsh in front on Romeo’s blocker side to one-time the puck into a wide-open net.
“Just goes to show the only statistic that matters is the scoreboard,” Gendron said. “Bottom line is we have to play solidly for 60 minutes.”
For the Minutemen, it was a coming-out party for the recently formed line combination of Walsh, Iacobellis and Troy Power. The trio accounted for all three UMass goals – Walsh leading the way with two goals and an assist, Iacobellis a goal and an assist and Power with an assist – an effort UMass coach John Micheletto said translated from a strong week of practice.
But as can be clearly seen in the final box score, one line’s effort and a 35-save performance from goaltender Henry Dill was about all the Minutemen had going for them. Micheletto said a little luck is often necessary to escape with tough wins, which was evident Friday.
“I’d like to think the hockey gods are smiling down on us a little bit,” Micheletto said. “And although we didn’t check a lot of the boxes [on the stat sheet], we did enough to win. That’s sometimes the way it goes.”
“In the end, it’s the score column that really matters,” added Iacobellis. “And today, we did a really good job with that.”
After a scoreless first period in which the Black Bears outshot UMass 16-8, Dan Renouf got Maine on the board with a goal 4:22 into the second shortly after the Minutemen killed a too many men on the ice penalty.
Walsh tied the game at 1-1 with a shorthanded goal 10:01 into the second period. Brandon Montour set up the opportunity when he led the odd-man rush up the middle of the ice, shifted from forehand to backhand in the face of a defenseman and fed Walsh, who ripped a shot past Romeo’s glove.
The Black Bears wasted little time responding to regain the lead. After killing one of its two penalties in UMass’ second five-on-three advantage, Maine went up 2-1 four minutes after the tying goal on a shorthanded tally by Conor Riley who was set up by a behind-the-net pass from Cam Brown.
However, as the stat line won’t show, the Minutemen responded with a much-improved third period that resulted in just enough heroics from its newest trio.
“In between periods after the first and second, guys were kind of down a little bit,” said Walsh. “It’s just about remembering that we have 20 more minutes to get out there and make a difference. It’s about not getting down and going out and playing.”
