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Despite a 7-6-2 record, here’s why UMass men’s hockey coach Greg Carvel likes his team so much
“When we have it, when we put it all together, we’re good.”
The record may not be what he would like, but UMass men’s hockey coach Greg Carvel likes what he sees from his squad as it gets set for a two-game series against Boston University to close out the first half of the season heading into the holiday break.
The Minutemen have won three of their last four to improve to 7-6-2, posting wins over Providence, Harvard, and Army. The setback was 3-2 to Vermont, in which UMass posted a 40-19 advantage in shots. Last Friday’s 3-1 win over Army marked the third straight game the Minutemen recorded at least 40 shots on net.
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“I like this team,” said Carvel. “When we have it, when we put it all together, we’re good. We’re an NCAA [tournament]-level hockey team. Just too many games this year, the goaltending wasn’t there, the defense wasn’t there, or the offense wasn’t there. When we get them all together, we’re a good hockey team.”
Michael Hrabal posted a .950 save percentage in the three wins after struggling earlier in the season. The 6-foot-7-inch netminder from Prague was selected in the second round of the 2023 NHL Draft (38th overall) by the Arizona Coyotes, now the Utah Hockey Club.
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Junior forward Cole O’Hara is third in the nation with 21 points on seven goals and 14 assists, while sophomore Aydar Suniev’s nine goals lead the team.
The defensemen are learning on the job, with UMass dressing at least three freshman blue liners in 14 of the 15 games, and as many as four on six occasions. It’s part of the reason why Carvel elects to go with a seventh defenseman when choosing the extra skater.
“If you lose a defenseman to injury or a misconduct, it’s harder to play at five D than it is to play with 11 forwards,” said Carvel. “Then there’s the fact that we’ll go into these games with three freshman defensemen, and you don’t always know what you’re going to get game to game. So we’d like to have seven D and see which six are playing the best.”
The series with BU begins Saturday at Agganis Arena, and concludes Wednesday at the Mullins Center. The Terriers (8-5-1) returned from Belfast this week having captured the Belpot Trophy at the Friendship Four. The wonky schedule, with the game on Saturday and then three days off, is welcome.
“It gives our guys a little bit more of a chance to recover,” said BU coach Jay Pandolfo. “I felt like the adjustment is easier coming back to get back on your sleep schedule, and getting the right amount of rest, and talking to our guys that they feel like they’re back to the regular schedule.”
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Evenly matched
These matchups between UConn and Boston College are becoming must-see. After the Huskies handed BC its first conference loss last month, the teams were back at it on Wednesday, this time at Conte Forum, where the Eagles needed overtime to prevail, 2-1.
Freshmen Teddy Stiga and James Hagens were the goal scorers, with Hagens’s winner his third time finding the net in the last two games.
Stiga assisted on the play, his cross-ice pass from deep in his end finding Hagens at the blue line in front of the BC bench. With his teammates and coaches yelling, “Two! two!” to let him know he had a two on one with Aidan Hreschuk skating down the left side, Hagens took off with the puck. Hreschuk continued to stay wide, drawing the defender and allowing Hagens the opening to bury the shot.
Next up for BC (11-3-0) is a home-and home series featuring two of the top teams in Hockey East with UMass Lowell (10-3-1) beginning Friday night at Tsongas Center and concluding Monday at Conte Forum. The River Hawks are coming off a strong showing at the Adirondack Winter Invitational at Lake Placid, N.Y., defeating St. Lawrence and tying Clarkson.
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UConn (7-7-1) is off until it travels to Milwaukee for the Kwik Trip Holiday Face-Off at Fiserv Forum to take on Alaska Fairbanks on Dec. 28.
Weekend plans
Providence (10-3-2) will welcome Colorado College (9-2-1) of the NCHC for a pair of games this weekend that could prove pivotal in the PairWise rankings at season’s end. Providence is 11th, while CC is 14th.
It will be a homecoming of sorts for Tigers coach Kris Mayotte, who served as an assistant on Friars coach Nate Leaman’s staff from 2014-19. Mayotte’s relationship with Leaman dates to his sophomore year at Union College, where he was a goalie when Leaman took over the program in 2003 after serving as an assistant at Harvard.
In their five years working together, Providence won the national championship in 2015 and reached another Frozen Four in 2019 before bowing to eventual national champion Minnesota Duluth. Mayotte departed that spring to take an assistant position at Michigan, but was called on by Leaman again to join his staff for the 2021 World Junior Championship, with Team USA taking home the gold.
In other action this weekend, Harvard will host Clarkson on Friday and St. Lawrence on Saturday, before entering the holiday break. Northeastern is home for a pair of games, hosting UNH on Friday and Brown on Saturday. Alaska Anchorage will visit Merrimack for a pair, and Stonehill travels to Orono to take on Maine.
That’s the ticket
Tickets for the Hockey East championship went on sale this week. With the World Figure Skating Championships being held at TD Garden the following week, the tournament has been moved up one day, with the semifinals on Thursday, March 20, and the championship game on Friday, March 21. Tickets can be purchased at ticketmaster.com.
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