AMHERST – Coming from the Muskegon Lumberjacks in the USHL together last season, Václav Nestrašil and Jack Galanek had very strong freshman seasons.
But now as sophomores, the familiar duo combined for four goals in UMass men’s hockey’s 5-3 victory over Stonehill on Saturday night. To start the second period, Minutemen (3-1-1) coach Greg Carvel reunited the Jack Musa, Galanek and Nestrašil line and was immediately rewarded.
On their first shift, Galanek brought in a puck on a neutral-zone pass and took it in on the right side, cutting to the middle of the ice. Musa held the left wing while Nestrašil trailed from the middle and drove to the right, pushing to the post once he reached the slot. Galanek played it to Musa, who stickhandled quickly, looked up, and found Nestrašil open on the back post for his fourth of the season.
That was one of two goals the Czech forward scored as he continued his electric start to the season. Nestrašil scored six goals in seven games last season; he sits just one short of that total in the seven he’s played this season. That last-season total is helped by a hat trick in this matchup last season, when UMass beat the Skyhawks 4-1.
“[Nestrašil] keeps getting better.” Greg Carvel said, “Winning battles, playing with energy, playing faster. So he’s been really, to me, as important as any player we’ve had so far this year.”
The Minutemen found success on the power play, and Nestrašil was one of the beneficiaries. In the second period, the UMass power play worked the puck around, and Nestrašil set up in his spot in front of the crease Maxime Masse popped the puck up to Musa at the high slot.
The senior smashed a shot to the glove side of Mason Vaccari. Nestrašil, ready for the puck, shifted toward the goal and reached out to deflect it into the net.
The power play went one-for-seven last game against Northeastern, but against Stonehill, the Minutemen scored twice and registered 15 shots on goal.
“We started moving the puck quickly[on the power play], ”Greg Carvel said. “In the first period we were just overhandling; it was slow. We shot some pucks, which was good, but I liked the puck movement in the second period, much better”
Early in the game, on the power play, Gavin Cornforth received a pass in the left corner of the Skyhawks zone. He cut toward the net with speed from behind the red line, drawing defenders in his direction before pushing a backhand pass to Jack Galanek in the slot. Galanek dropped to a knee, snapping a one-timer past Vaccari for UMass to take an early lead.
Galanek added an empty-net goal in the last minute to hold off Stonehill. Musa continued his extremely strong playmaking season, adding three more assists. He is now on nine assists for the season without scoring a goal of his own.
“Playing with Musa is just so easy,” Nestrašil said. “I stole the second goal off of him; it’s just a pleasure to play with [Galanek] and Musa. That’s what made me score those two goals.”
Tobias Trejbal got the second start of his young collegiate hockey career. He was pulled midway through his first start against Colorado College in the season’s first series. He allowed three goals on just 20 shots and was replaced by senior Jackson Irving.
Against Stonehill, Trejbal allowed three more goals but made 26 saves in the win.
In the dying seconds against Rochester Institute of Technology, Francesco Dell’Elce picked up a puck on his blue line and swung a prayer on net that somehow found the net to tie the game.
On Saturday, Dell’Elce played the puck off the boards, spun around, and shot a pea roller toward the net. The puck stayed low to the ice and caught Vaccari by surprise because he didn’t see it the whole way through due to a screen from Maxim Masse.
The Minutemen continue their run against another Massachusetts-based non-conference opponent next week with a home-and-home series against Harvard. The Crimson will host the first game on Thursday, Oct. 29, at 7 p.m. The second game is back at the Mullins Center at the same time on Friday.
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