Maine throttles UMass hockey, 6-2, in series opener

AMHERST — Over the course of a college hockey season, teams are bound to turn in a stinker of a performance every now and then. Under the tutelage of head coach Greg Carvel, those instances are few and far between for the UMass hockey team.

However, the No. 13 Minutemen’s 6-2 loss to No. 6 Maine at the Mullins Center on Thursday night was an exception to the norm as the Black Bears handed UMass its most lopsided loss on home ice since 2023-34 season on a night where essentially nothing went the Minutemen’s way.

“That’s probably as poorly as we’ve played in my 10 years here at UMass,” Carvel said. “I have to figure out why we don’t come out ready to compete in games. I thought we were pretty well-prepared to what Maine was going to bring and that’s what they do. We just had no compete tonight, no pushback.”

Junior goalie Jackson Irving made his first start of the season in place of junior Michael Hrabal. After the game, Carvel noted his No. 1 netminder is “out day-to-day with an injury.”

Irving faced an onslaught of shots from Maine as the Newbury native saved 48 of 54 pucks thrown his way in the loss.

“I felt good, I felt confident, I thought I was seeing the puck pretty well,” Irving said on how he felt entering Thursday’s bout. “I wish I had a few more saves in me to help out the guys, but I felt good.”

Irving revealed he was told on Wednesday from Carvel that he would get the nod between the pipes for UMass in its first game against the Black Bears.

While Irving and the rest of the Minutemen roster held off the talented Maine squad for most of the first period, the Black Bears’ talent eventually broke through with two quick tallies, effectively opening the floodgates for the defending Hockey East tournament champions.

Maine’s Josh Nadeau snapped home his first of two goals and four points of the game at 18 minutes, 54 seconds of the frame with a short-handed strike, making it 1-0.

Sixteen seconds later, Brandon Holt sent a shot from the top of the left circle toward the UMass net that deflected off Minutemen defenseman Lucas Olvestad and past Irving, altering the tenor of the game for good.

‘That was big to score at the end there, to get those two,” Black Bears head coach Ben Barr said. “I think that might have changed the game if we didn’t get a chance to score there.”

From then on, Maine tacked on two more goals each period, while UMass’ markers came from junior Nick VanTassell (second period) and freshman Jack Galanek (third period), before the final buzzer as UMass sunk to 6-4-0 overall in the deflating defeat.

“I think they outworked us tonight and that’s unacceptable,” Galanek said. “I think [Friday] we have to compete harder than them and I think we’ll get the result.”

VanTassell’s one-timer off the rush counted as his first of the season, while Galanek grabbed his first career collegiate goal with a nifty backhander following a feed from junior Jack Musa.

Penalties proved to be a factor yet again for the Minutemen as they were whistled for four infractions on Thursday. The Black Bears scored twice on the man-advantage and totaled seven shots on goal in their power-play opportunities.

“Discipline is usually is not an issue for us over the last couple of years, but that’s consistent with your work ethic,” Carvel said. “If you’re not competing hard, you’re probably going to end up taking penalties.”

Half of Maine’s total goals were scored in special-teams situations.

Owen Fowler (three assists) and Sully Scholle (goal, assist) joined Nadeau as mulit-point getters for the Black Bears, who improved to 6-2-1.

UMass will look to salvage a split in Friday’s follow up, with puck drop set for 7 p.m.