A desperate University of Massachusetts hockey team seeking to enhance its chances of making the NCAA Tournament wasted little time taking a good step in that direction on Friday night against the University of Maine.
The Minutemen, 12th in the Pairwise Rankings that mimic the NCAA Tournament selection committee’s process, scored twice in the game’s first 7:09 and never looked back en route to a comfortable 5-1 victory over the Black Bears at the Mullins Center in Amherst, Massachusetts.
It was UMaine’s most lopsided loss of the season.
UMass, ranked 14th in one major poll and 16th in the other, improved to 19-12-4 overall and 10-9-4 in Hockey East while UMaine, fourth in one and fifth in the other poll, fell to 21-7-5 and 13-5-5, respectively.
UMaine entered the weekend fourth in the Pairwise Rankings.
With the loss, UMaine lost its miniscule chance to pass Boston College atop the Hockey East standings. UMaine will finish second.
UMass moved into a fifth place tie with Providence with each having one game remaining.
UMass and UMaine will conclude their series on Saturday at 7:30 while Providence will visit Northeastern for a 7:15 game.
The fifth place team will earn a first round bye and will visit fourth seed UConn for a quarterfinal game next Saturday.
The sixth place team will host the last place team, either Vermont or New Hampshire, in a first round game on Wednesday.
Junior right wing Cole O’Hara opened the scoring just 2:52 into the game and junior center Kenny Connors expanded the lead on the power play at the 7:09 mark.
Sophomore left wing Jack Musa made it 3-0 with 39 seconds left in the initial period.
It was just the third time this season has given up three goals in a period with the other two coming in a 3-2 loss at Boston College and a 6-5 overtime victory over Quinnipiac.
It was only the fourth time UMaine has given up more than three goals in a game.
Graduate student forward Joey Musa, Jack’s brother, made it 4-0 2:26 into the second period.
Sophomore Charlie Russell scored for the Black Bears in the third period but O’Hara restored the four-goal margin with a shorthanded goal.
O’Hara opened the scoring by deflecting Francesco Dell’Elce’s wrist shot past Albin Boija for his 21st goal of the season.
That extended his school-record scoring streak to 13 games.
Connors scored his 10th with a wrist shot from the middle of the slot through a maze of legs and Musa collected his 17th off the rebound of a Lucas Ovestad shot,
Joey Musa’s goal was his first and Russell scored his seventh for Maine.
O’Hara’s second goal of the game gives him 13 goals and 7 assists in his 13-game scoring streak.
Michael Hrabal made 38 saves for UMass and Boija finished with 27.
“We got beat in every aspect of the game,” said UMaine coach Ben Barr. “They got to our net and we didn’t get to their net. We had some pretty bad efforts from people we rely on.
“It was disappointing,” added Barr.
