It has to be a big weekend if UConn-UMass is the undercard.
The Massachusetts hockey team (3-3-0 overall, 2-1-0 Hockey East) heads to the Midwest Friday to kick off a non-conference weekend with an upscale matchup against No. 4 Michigan State before finishing off its weekend by returning to the Bay State for a contest against Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference opponent UConn, a game that will be played at the Springfield Civic Center on Sunday.
The Minutemen will have no easy task in attempting to knock of the Spartans, who have gone unbeaten in their last 22 contests held at Munn Ice Arena.
“It’s exciting for our guys because they’re going into a storied program – what they know is going to be a big crowd, a real challenging situation,” UMass Head Coach Don Cahoon said.
MSU (5-2-1, 5-2-1 Central Collegiate Hockey Association) leads its conference, but will be facing off against its first non-conference foe in the Maroon and White, which went 0-2 in its first trip West this season. UMass came up winless in two contests against nationally ranked Colorado College on Oct. 20 and 21.
“We need to be respectful of the fact that it’s a very good team, one of the top teams in the country for sure,” Cahoon said. “Playing in front of 7,000 people – if we can block that all out, be respectful, but not so afraid that we play to the best of our ability and do the things we need to do to keep the game competitive – to stay in the game so that we give ourselves a chance coming into the third period.”
The biggest hill for the Minutemen to climb will certainly be the task of putting pucks by last year’s Hobey Baker Award winner Ryan Miller, who has been a force in the crease ever since he arrived in East Lansing three years ago. This year, Miller has a 1.91 goals against average to go along with a .916 save percentage and three shutouts heading into Friday’s contest.
“Ryan Miller’s a great player, no question, and they have what is arguably the best defensive core in college hockey,” Cahoon said. “So there’s two tasks here – the task of putting enough pressure on Miller to challenge and threaten and the task of being able to turn their defense into a different group of players.”
The scary fact is that those numbers are well below what Miller has shown he can do in the past. Last season, college hockey’s best player allowed just 1.32 goals per game, turning away 95 percent of the shots he faced. Of his 31 victories last season, nearly a third (10) came via the shutout.
Still Cahoon and his squad are far from fazed about going into East Lansing.
“I’m looking for the growth of the program,” he said. “As I told the guys last night, I want to take them any place to play anyone so that we can play the best in the toughest of circumstances. When we start to succeed in those circumstances, then we too will be one of the best.”
As for the Huskies, they stand at 1-3-1 on the young season, with their lone win coming against lowly American International College. In the team’s three losses, they have failed to amass a single goal. UConn was dominated in its lone Hockey East matchup of the young season, a 6-0 drubbing at the hands of Lowell.
Last season, the Minutemen fell apart against the Huskies, blowing a two-goal third period lead en route to a 2-2 tie at the Mullins Center. Cahoon sees a repeat of that letdown unlikely.
“Connecticut is UMass’ number one rival in almost every sport,” he said. “This game will be a game that we’ll play every year. We better take it seriously, because I don’t think we want to lose our bragging rights to UConn over a hockey game in Springfield.”
Game time Sunday is slated for 7:00 p.m.
