Inexperience can do a lot of things to a hockey team. It can be channeled into youthful excitement or it can explode into sloppiness and inconsistency. For Massachusetts, it was the former in a 4-3 win over ECAC opponent Rensselaer.<\/p>\n
The Minutemen thoroughly dominated the contest in almost every facet. The shot total was almost laughable (41-13), though the Engineers’ 3-2 lead at the second intermission was certainly no joke.<\/p>\n
Two UMass goals within a 55-second span early in the final period erased that deficit however. Sophomore Jeff Lang got his first career goal and point to tie the game at the 1:55 mark of the third. Freshman Matt Anderson (2 assists) won an offensive draw clean back to Lang who faked before sliding a point shot into the upper portion of the net.<\/p>\n
“I faked the shot and the kid went down,” Lang said. “I moved a little to the right and saw Matt [Anderson] screen in front so I just let it go.”<\/p>\n
“I knew he shot it so I went down,” RPI goalie Kevin Kurk said. “But I just completely lost sight of it.”<\/p>\n
Tim Vitek got the game winner under a minute later on a breakaway. Lang sliced a cross-ice, blueline-to-blueline feed to Vitek, who broke in unabated on Kurk before shelfing the winner.<\/p>\n
“I put myself in a good position and I was calling for the puck,” Vitek said. “The goalie was shifting and he left that right corner open. He was really leaning on the post so I just shot it over him.”<\/p>\n
Engineer coach Dan Fridgen called it a breakdown.<\/p>\n
“It was a defenseman that shouldn’t have been coming off the ice,” Fridgen said. “I don’t know what you would call that.”<\/p>\n
Freshman Gabe Winer, making his first career start was sterling with two saves in the final minute to preserve the lead. The first came off a point blast from Danny Eberly that Winer took right off the mask. The second was a slot chance from Mikael Hammarstrom.<\/p>\n
“It was a tough game for a goaltender,” UMass coach Don Cahoon said of Winer (9 saves). “It was a real mental challenge for him, almost tougher than seeing a lot of rubber. But judging from the way he handled the last five minutes he played well.”<\/p>\n
Kurk was certainly the busier of the two keepers as he stopped 37 of 41 shots. Nolan Graham led the way offensively for the Engineers with a goal and an assist. Fridgen however, was unhappy with the effort offensively.<\/p>\n
“I think we were guilty of passing up shooting opportunities,” Fridgen said. “If you’re not doing a simple thing like shooting the puck on the four-by-six, you’re not going to win games.”<\/p>\n
Senior captain Danny Eberly, who assisted on Vic Pereira’s power play goal in the second period, was unhappy with his team’s overall effort.<\/p>\n
“Tonight we came to play,” Eberly said. “But not the full 60 minutes. We made a couple of mistakes and they capitalized on them.”<\/p>\n
RPI had two goal leads on a pair of occasions, only to see them go by the boards in the Engineers third straight loss to a Hockey East opponent.<\/p>\n
C.J. Hanafin gave RPI its first two-goal lead at 14:31 of the first with a magnificent individual effort. The sophomore pivot flew cut to the middle on defenseman Marvin Degon before pulling a toe-drag between his legs and directing a backhand past Winer.<\/p>\n
Thomas Pock cut the deficit in half before the first intermission but Pereira’s blast from the point restored the two-goal lead. Nick Kuiper’s goal just over a minute later started the three-goal Minuteman rush that ended RPI’s night.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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