AMHERST – Four unanswered goals from No. 13 Boston University sank the UMass hockey team, 4-2, in Hockey East action Wednesday night at the Mullins Center.

Terriers freshman defenseman Cole Hutson factored into every BU goal, marking the first time this season the Minutemen have lost after entering the third period with a lead (7-1-0).

“He's a lot like [Francesco] Dell'Elce,” UMass head coach Greg Carvel said regarding Cole Hutson's game. “They're talented skaters, they have a good feel for space. Hutson did a great job penetrating and getting shots too deep into the zone.”

Two of BU's goals came on the man-advantage, an area that favored the Minutemen in Boston on Saturday, but results flipped on Wednesday in Amherst. The Terriers (9-6-1) went 2-for-5 on the power play while UMass finished 0-for-3.

“I don't think we got enough pucks through,” UMass’ Jack Musa said on the power play struggles. “They blocked a couple and they switched up a little and that kind of hurt our system.” 

Boston University had 11 shots on its power play opportunities. UMass managed just four shots during its three man-advantage chances.

Musa scored 1 minute, 41 seconds into the contest to kick off the scoring for UMass, whacking home his seventh of the season on a loose puck that evaded BU goalie Mathieu Caron.

The Minutemen (8-7-2) didn't double their lead to 2-0 until the latter stages of the second on Aydar Suniev's team-leading 10th of the year. Cole O'Hara and Suniev sprung loose for a 2-on-1 and Suniev snapped the puck through Caron's five-hole at 13:09.

Boston University finally solved UMass sophomore goalie Michael Hrabal in the waning minutes of the second on a Devin Kaplan power play goal. Hrabal made the initial save, but the puck rode up high on the Minutemen goalie and dropped right down to his feet, and Kaplan was there to slide it over the goal line at 17:53, cutting the lead to 2-1.

Despite the advantage, UMass looked to be losing momentum against BU as the visitors held the edge in shots (26-17) after two periods of play, including a 15-8 clip in the second period alone.

“I liked our start, we were up 2-0, although they gave a good pushback in the beginning of the second period,” Carvel said. “But it felt like we had a couple back-to-back penalties. We played really a short bench tonight too and it felt like in the third period, we ran out of gas.”

Cole Hutson and Quinn Hutson combined for the Terriers' three third-period goals, with Cole Hutson's second of the night counting as a power-play strike.

“They had too many power plays today,” Suniev said. “It kind of helped them to get some momentum in the third, to get those [goals].”

Wednesday's defeat was also Hrabal's first loss in three games, with his last 'L' coming versus Vermont on Nov. 24.

“He made a huge save in the first, much like he did at BU.  I think he made a couple of big time saves,” Carvel said. “The ones that went in I think were a little unlucky for him, deflections, again, BU got to the net really well."

The Minutemen are now off until Dec. 28 when they'll host Simon Fraser for an exhibition at the Mullins Center.