The Minutemen opened the scoring just over a minute into the first frame when sophomore Kevin Leveille notched an unassisted goal at 1:12.

Primm got an unassisted strike of his own three minutes later at 4:12, but it was the closest the Crimson would come on the afternoon.

UMass rattled off three more goals before sophomore midfielder Doug Logigian took a feed from senior attackman Roger Buttles at 10:31 of the first period to get within 4-2. The Minutemen got one more when Madigan found Dan Paccione to make it 5-2 at the end of the first frame.

The Crimson got one more before the half when junior midfielder Derek Nowak found senior attackman Dana Sprong for his only strike, but only after the Minutemen poured in another pair of goals to make it 6-3 at the intermission.

The Crimson have had trouble on the restart all year, and yesterday's game was no exception. UMass dominated the face-off in the first half, taking eight of the 11 draws in the period.

UMass, and primary face-off man senior Jeff Seals, have been dominant at the stripe this season with a .627 winning percentage going into yesterday's game. Seals is ranked eighth in the nation in the face-off, taking 125 of 200 draws for a .625 average.

With the Crimson down only three at the start of the second half, the door seemed at least partly open for a Crimson comeback. But having been in a number of tough games already this season, the Minutemen seemed to have a knack for slamming that door shut.