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The penalty kill was perfect in the Massachusetts hockey team’s 2-0 victory over Northeastern. In Saturday night’s game, the penalty kill was a weakness, allowing the Huskies (10-5, 5-4 Hockey East) to score two power-play goals. Changes were made, and the Minutemen (9-9, 3-6 HEA) killed all three of the opposing man advantages on Sunday.
“Definitely goes back to video,” Mikey DeAngelo said. “We got in the room this morning, watched the video over, and [Tom Upton], he coaches that, so he’s been in charge and doing a good job, like trying to make adjustments on the fly and read what they’re doing, and [we’re] just trying to do the best we can to stop them.”
With 15 minutes remaining in the game, Bo Cosman took a trip to the penalty box after tripping a Northeastern player with a slew foot.
The first key to a successful penalty kill is the defensive-zone face off. Freshman Jack Galanek has become the primary face-off taker for UMass, and on this occasion, he won it cleanly back to Jack Musa, who sent the puck down the length of the ice.
With 10 seconds of the power play already gone, Dylan Compton took the puck through the neutral zone and tried to pass it to Austen May, but the aggressive stick of Galanek knocked it to Musa and eventually found the stick of Lucas Ölvestad, who once again sent the puck all the way down the ice.
By the time the Huskies set up the in the offensive zone on the power play, 40 seconds had already been killed, and the Minutemen were able to make a change. With half of the man advantage elapsed, Compton took the first shot, which was turned away by Jackson Irving in goal for UMass. The rebound snuck out to the top of the crease, and May was the first to it, moving the puck to his backhand for a shot, but once again, Irving made the stop, stretching his right pad to make the save and cover up the puck.
In the ensuing face off, Northeastern won, and the team played the puck around, getting two shots from distance, both of which Irving saved. With 15 seconds left in the power play, Dylan Hryckowian ripped a shot, stepping down from the blueline. In front of him, Larry Keenan twisted his body to block the shot.
Coming into the weekend, the Minutemen’s penalty kill ranked tied for 49th in the nation. Ten goals were allowed on the 40 power plays they conceded, for a 75% penalty kill rate. This weekend matched that number with the two goals the Huskies scored in Saturday’s game. Going into the second game, the UMass penalty kill made some adaptations to stop Northeastern’s power play.
“We felt like they got a lot of offense off the blueline last night, taking advantage of how we defended, so we made some adjustments in the defensive zone, and that was helpful,” head coach Greg Carvel said. “I don’t remember them getting many pucks to the net from the blueline, [not] nearly as much as they did last night.
On the first two penalty kills of the game, the Minutemen allowed just five shots on target and, at some point, actually created some offense. In the first period, on a Huskies power play, following a board battle in the corner to Irving’s right, Musa played the puck clear to Galanek, who had help from a speeding Francesco Dell’Elce on a 2-on-1. The last defender just barely got his stick around to deflect the Dell’Elce shot, preventing the shorthanded chance.
UMass has a long break ahead before its next games. It starts back up with an exhibition on Friday, Jan. 2 against Simon Fraser, followed by the return of HEA play with a series against Boston University on Jan. 9 and 10, and those games can be streamed on ESPN+.
Myles Donato can be reached at [email protected] and followed on X @myles_donato.
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