At the end of every practice, the players on the Massachusetts hockey team gather at center ice for some final words from coach Don Cahoon, and then scatter in different directions toward the showers or for some extra shots.
Yesterday, that gathering — normally a mild-mannered adjournment — ended with the Minutemen jumping up and down, cheering loudly, as if they’d just won a big game.
Not exactly the picture you would expect from a hockey team that has lost four of its last five games, including a 7-1 thrashing by a conference foe.
However, as the Minutemen (7-9-1, 4-4-1 Hockey East) head into tonight’s game at New Hampshire (Whittemore Center, 7 p.m.), it might be the kind of confidence they exuded at the center of the Mullins Center Practice Rink that has been missing all this time.
“Confidence seems to waver,” Cahoon said, “and the confidence is directly related to our ability to coordinate our play. We’re not very coordinated at this point, we’re not playing together the way we need, and so that’s really been the problem.”
The Minutemen have not won a game on the road this season. Their last road win, in fact, was a 1-0 victory at Maine on Jan. 17, discounting their Hockey East semifinal win over UNH at Boston’s FleetCenter. The Wildcats (10-3-2, 5-1-1 HEA) are third in the Hockey East standings, with first-place Boston University (8-1-0 HEA) and second-place Maine (6-3-1) within striking distance. UNH has won six of its last eight, with only a 5-4 loss to Vermont on Nov. 23 and a 3-3 draw with UMass Lowell the only blemishes.
Other than the Colorado Springs World Arena, where they were bounced 3-1 by the Colorado College Tigers, the Minutemen haven’t played a road game at an arena that approximates the large ice surface they call home at the Mullins Center. The Whittemore Center’s 200-by-100-foot surface is just a hair bigger than the Mullins Center’s, and while it can seem like an ocean to incoming opponents, it could be a more comfortable space for UMass, and right now Cahoon will take any help on the road he can get.
“I don’t know if it’s the sheet, or the mindset, or both,” Cahoon said of his club’s struggles away from home. “But the confidence and the assuredness, a lot of teams are confident on the road, and that can be a difference.”
There seem to be a lot of unanswerable questions about the Minutemen, but the goaltender situation, though it has become a little more complex, has at least given Cahoon some options. The Minutemen began the season with a two-goalie rotation, as Gabe Winer and Tim Warner alternated starts. However, sophomore Michael Waidlich was thrown into the mix against Denver on Nov. 27, and freshman Jamie Gilbert made two stops in relief against Merrimack on Nov. 6. The goaltending tandem has turned into a three-way combination of Waidlich, Winer, and Warner, with Gilbert on the outside looking in.
“The biggest problem is, I think we’ve struggled with having four goalies in camp,” Cahoon said. “I think it’s been difficult not only for Gabe, but difficult for Jamie Gilbert as well. We’re focusing on just giving enough work to Gabe and [Warner] and [Gilbert] right now, and just getting Jamie to grow into a part of the future. Gabe’s still our go-to guy, and Timmy’s done a good job backing him up and picking up games, and Mike has shown us where he’s at at this point. So we’ve got a good handle on it, we’ve just got to figure out how to work it.”
