AMHERST – AJ Stupak’s third-period strike halted the Amherst hockey team’s winning streak as visiting Ludlow downed the Hurricanes, 1-0, Tuesday night at Orr Rink.

Amherst had been winners of three straight heading into Tuesday’s battle, before Ludlow notched the decider 1 minute, 22 seconds into the last period.

Stupak ripped a snap-shot from the point, following assists from Evan Dias and Tanner Severyn, that whizzed by Hurricanes goalie Spencer McDonald and into the top shelf of the net. Records for both teams moved to 3-3-1 following the final buzzer.

“The difference was we finally got one by their goaltender, he’s very good,” Ludlow head coach Paul Rivest said. “The shots we had, were 31-5, on net. [Amherst was] playing like a trap, it was very soft, so the forecheck was easy to break out of the zone. We were getting by their last line of defense, we were just over-handling the puck.”

The Hurricanes had a golden opportunity to even the score late in the third period as they secured a power play with about 3:30 left in regulation.

The Lions’ penalty kill came up huge though, as the hosts never got comfortable in the attacking zone. Amherst pulled McDonald with just over a minute to go in the game, but couldn’t capitalize with the extra attacker following the man-advantage opportun ity.

“Couldn’t ask for anything more,” Hurricanes head coach Mike Rousseau said on the final power play. “We’re just tired, we’re fatigued, we’re not deep, they were just beating us to loose pucks.”

Amherst played a majority of the game without freshman Nate Desbian, who took a high hit early in the first period that went uncalled. Desbian, who did not return to the ice after the big collision, is tied for the team lead in goals with three and his absence proved to be tough to overcome against Berry Division squad Ludlow.

“I don’t know what to say, the play was a play, it’s easy for me to say the refs blew a call, I don’t know,” Rousseau said. “One shot was the difference in this game and they had it. I cannot take anything away from the effort of our boys. That’s one of our top two or three players, he goes down early in the game and we still stay 0-0 throughout most of the game with this team, I’m as proud as anything.”

Ludlow has a handful of players from Belchertown this year because of a brand new co-op between the two schools.

“Charlie Fijal, he stands out when he’s out there,” Rivest said. “But we got really good work from Jack Mandeville on defense, he’s a senior defenseman, and then Andrew Lambert, he’s only a freshman. I guess he played last year as an eighth-grader, but he’s playing like he’s in 11th or 12th grade, he’s just a very solid defenseman.

“[Goalie] Donald Rogers has been very good too, our two goalies are so good that we just keep switching games,” Rivest said. “It’s not like an NHL season where they’re going to get 40 games each, it’s a high-school season so they’re each going to get six starts, seven starts until the playoffs. The kids have really meshed together too, which is nice.”

Peter LeBorgne earned the shutout in goal for the Lions on Tuesday.

Amherst will look to shake off the loss when it returns to the ice on Thursday against Easthampton back at Orr Rink.

“Our effort is there,” Rousseau said. “We’re going to beat the teams in our division. We’re going to beat them with our system. We’re going to work hard each and every practice. We’re going to work each and every game. Our biggest… probably our rivalry game now is Easthampton, Thursday night at 6 [p.m.]. They’re coming off a rough game against Westfield the other night, we’re coming off a rough, emotional game [Tuesday], it ought to be a good one.”