After playing an up-tempo, hard-hitting style of hockey last Saturday night against Colorado College, the Massachusetts hockey team hoped to transfer that intensity shown against a reeling Providence Friars squad. This time, the intensity of the Minutemen paid off, as they out-hustled, out-muscled and out-maneuvered Providence en route to notching their first Hockey East victory of this young season.

From the opening faceoff until the final buzzer, the Maroon and White beat the Friars to loose pucks all over the Schneider Arena surface, and constantly forced PC to be in retreat as UMass kept the offensive pressure on for the entire 60 minutes. Had Providence netminder Nolan Schaefer not pulled out several clutch saves on odd-man rushes, the score likely could have been out of hand for the Friars.

One key aspect of the victory for the Minutemen was the stellar play of their seven freshmen in the lineup, as they played like polished seniors instead of timid newcomers. Freshman forward Craig MacDonald notched his first tally of the season as he exhibited one of the most important qualities of a top goal-scorer: patience. After a Schaefer misplay in the crease, MacDonald waited for several seconds until the perfect opportunity to stuff the disc through the five hole. Greg Mauldin also was a consistent offensive threat throughout the whole game, leading the team with six shots on goal, and Tim Vitek created havoc all night for Providence, playing with reckless abandon and throwing his body around on each shift.

“They’re doing everything they’re supposed to right now; you can’t ask too much of them, being freshmen,” junior forward Jimmy Callahan said. “But as of right now, they’re above and beyond what they’re supposed to do.”

The defensive presence of the Minutemen kept the Friars at bay as well, as senior defensemen Toni Soderholm and Randy Drohan punished the hosts with brutal checks while the Maroon and White as a whole prevented the PC offensive attack from gaining the middle of the zone.

“We really tried to stand up and neutralize them in the middle of the rink, but you need good checking position from the wingers and you need good support from the forwards in order to do that,” Head Coach Don Cahoon said. “I think the two working together created [the ability to stop the Friar attack].”

Physicality was the major strategy from the start for the Minutemen, and the fearless style stressed during the entire week of practice paid major dividends.

“When you go into a smaller rink, you have to have the game plan just to play the body, play physical and not be afraid out there,” Callahan said.

“Last week, Coach stressed a lot of banging, short high-intensity practices, and we’re just gonna go at it the same way,” senior forward Brad Nizwantowski said.

“It’s going to be hard but it’s going to be fun, and if it’s fun you don’t mind doing it, you like coming to the rink every day,” added Nizwantowski, who has a knack for scoring huge goals on the road for the Minutemen. In addition to notching the game-winning goal yesterday, his overtime tally late last year in Durham against UNH propelled UMass to a huge victory.

Defensive prowess and the freshman play aside, what proved to be biggest for the Minutemen was something rather uncharacteristic of such a young team: resiliency. After the Friars’ Drew Omicioli scored a shorthanded goal right out of the second intermission to knot the teams up at three and shift the momentum back to the home team’s side, one would think that the inexperience of the Minutemen would show at the worst possible time. Not so. The Maroon and White maintained its scheme of banging and hustling to eventually regain the advantage on its way to a big Hockey East win.

“All of the guys really picked it up, really started talking; they took control like they have to for this team to get going,” Callahan said.

“Our practices have been unbelievable all week, real intense.” Nizwantowski said.

“The biggest thing is all of us believe in each other, and when one guy starts to believe in another guy, it’s like gasoline on a fire,” he added.