In an incredible shocking ending for the second straight night, the Minutemen lost on a short-sided wrap around with two seconds remaining.
AMHERST - If Friday night’s overtime loss had a sickening ending, this one felt like some sort of plague.
Call it the Sickening Sequel.
After going toe to toe with Merrimack all night, and after Michael Marcou had swept a possible game winning shot off a Merrimack stick with a head-long dive, the unthinkable happened.
Jeff Vellaca scored on the short side with two seconds left in regulation to give Merrimack a 4-3 win over stunned UMass before 4,927 at the Mullins Center.
UMass lost to Northeastern 4-3 in Boston Friday night on a soft goal 22 seconds into the overtime.
“Getting harder and harder to swallow,” UMass coach Toot Cahoon said. “But you can’t beat yourselves, like we seem to find a way. On the positive side, I thought they came back from a very difficult loss, and kind of organized themselves to compete. They played hard most of the night, and played intermittently smart. That’s a problem because you’ve got to play with some intelligence, and we don’t.”
The Minutemen sure didn’t play smart the last six seconds. Vellaca had the puck, came around the net, a forward could have come out and pressured him, but didn’t. Vellaca scored on a wrap-around off freshman goaltender Steve Mastalerz.
“Remember Jon Quick a few years ago struggling to learn to play those wrap arounds?, Cahoon said. “It’s like a fade-away wrap around where it’s not a tight wrap around so you don’t drop down. The guy (shooter) drifts away, and all you’ve got to do is square up.”
Mastalerz didn’t square up, and Vellaca put it over his shoulder.
"He’s got to learn to play that situation,” Cahoon added. But that’s more understandable than having a forward, with two defensemen covering people, standing there and not covering anyone, and not pressuring the guy with the puck.”
Unlike Friday night at Northeastern, the Minutemen took advantage of a five-minute major in the third period to tie the game at 3-3.
Joel Hanley tied the game 41 seconds into the third period on an assist from T.J. Syner.
And like Friday night, UMass would have to kill off a late too many men on the ice penalty.
After a ragged first period, the Minutemen were fortunate to get to the locker room tied at 2-2.
The game started as it did at Northeastern Friday with an early goal against. Right off a faceoff, Merrimack top scorer Ryan Flanigan took a quick shot off the draw and beat Mastalerz at 1:25.
That caused immediate concern because one never knows when the next time Merrimack senior goaltender Joe Cannata is going to allow a goal.
But the Minutemen came back to tie the game only a minute and five seconds later with sophomore Troy Power knocking in a rebound from the slot.
There was no time to build momentum because Josh Myers surprised Mastalerz with a long wrist shot that went in inside the post to the right of the netminder, a really soft goal.
That really hurt as again goals against Cannata are hard to come by, and to give up a soft one like that after tying the game 20 seconds earlier could have been the turning point.
Yet, UMass fought back again. Conor Sheary tied the game at 2-2 at 16:13 of the session.
The Minutemen turned it up several notches in the second period, and held a 14-7 advantage, but the Warriors netted the only goal of the period to take a 3-2 lead.
One of its best UMass chances in the period came at 12:45 when Branden Gracel fired a point-blank shot from the slot that went over the net.
Michael Pereira was on a break down the left wing, and had numbers on his side, but held on too long, and was broken up. Back the other way, Velleca turned and fired in the go-ahead goal for Merrimack at 15:37.