UMass, UNH skate to a draw

Both teams came out skating strong during the first period, especially UMass who seemed to get off to a better start than last night.  UNH goaltender  Matt DiGirolamo was forced to make a huge sprawling save just 2 minutes into the game after his defense dissolved in front of him and UMass aggressively crashed the net. 

UNH answered with an increase in speed through the neutral zone and retained puck posession.  After a stretch of maintained possession, Paul Thompson fired a shot on net that was saved by UMass goaltender Paul Dainton . Thompson gathered the rebound and slid it through the crease to the captain Mike Sislo who fired the puck top shelf and slipped it past an already committed Dainton. 

UMass was quick to respond to UNH’s goal when freshman defenseman Adam Phillips scored on DiGirolamo.  UMass crashed the net and maintained presence, sliding the puck in DiGirolamo’s five hole until it trickled in the net. 

UNH scored their second goal on the powerplay when Stevie Moses fired the puck past Dainton after an assist by DeSimone and a secondary assist by Thompson.

At the end of the first period, Phillips and Moses exchanged some words and both received matching penalties for grabbing each others’ facemasks.  Phillips was discharged for the game for initiating the scrum. 

The score remained 2-1 through the second period.  Both teams seemed tired and frustrated by the end of the period with some back and forth between players that led to penalties for Austin Block and T.J. Syner, penalties that carried into the third period.

After returning from his penalty, Syner scored in the third period to tie things up 2-2. Michael Pereira scored seconds later to take the 3-2 lead. 

UNH relentlessly answered with less than a minute in the third period on a goal by Blake Kessel assisted by DeSimone to send the game into Overtime. 

The score remained the same through the Overtime period with several chances for UMass on a 5 on 3 opportunity.

The three stars of the game were DeSimone and Thompson from UNH while UMass goaltender Dainton earned the second star of the game for stopping 43 of 46 shots faced.