Goffstown's Kyle Chauvette made 29 saves for his fourth shutout of the season, leading UNH past No. 19 UMass 1-0 on Saturday night at the Whittemore Center in Durham.
Chauvette, a senior transfer from Union, made 10 saves in each of the first two periods and nine in the third as the Wildcats flipped the script on Friday night's contest between the teams in Amherst, Mass., where the Minutemen prevailed 4-0.
Ryan MacPherson's first goal of the season, a quick shot from the left wing circle after taking a behind-the-net backhand pass from Concord's Ryan Philbrick, came at 8:04 of the first period and stood as the game's only goal.
The Wildcats improved to 13-16-1 overall and 7-12-1 in Hockey East. Combined with Providence College's weekend sweep at Vermont, UNH climbed out of last place in the league standings. The Wildcats have 23 points, which is one regulation victory behind eighth-place Merrimack. Teams who finish in spots six-through-eight receive home ice for the first round of the conference tournament. Merrimack has three games remaining, UNH four, including this coming weekend's home-and-home series with Providence (Friday in Rhode Island, Saturday in Durham).
UMass dropped to 18-12-0 overall and 8-9-0 in the league.
Dartmouth's Stavroff on fire
The nation's leading scorer continued to do his thing over the weekend. Sophomore forward Hayden Stavroff scored four goals in two Dartmouth games, then added the deciding goal in Saturday night's shootout win (3-3 tie) at Union.
Combined with a 3-1 win at RPI on Friday night, the 14th-ranked Big Green (18-7-3 overall, 12-5-3 in the ECAC) took five of a possible six points on the weekend. Dartmouth (43 points) sits four points behind league leader Quinnipiac for first place and two ahead of third place Cornell with one weekend remaining in the regular season. And what a weekend it should be: Dartmouth hosts the fifth-ranked Bobcats this coming Friday night and Ivy League rival Princeton on Saturday night in the annual "tennis ball game."
Stavroff scored twice each night, giving him 26 goals for the season — four clear of his next-closest competition, Sacred Heart's Felix Trudeau, Michigan's Will Horcoff, Quinnipiac's Ethan Wyttenbach and Minnesota Duluth's Max Plante, all of whom have 22.