The Massachusetts hockey team squandered an opportunity to close in on clinching a postseason berth last weekend when it got swept at Maine on a tough Saturday-Sunday road trip.
The Minutemen’s scoring trouble of late did not follow them to Orono, as they scored six goals over the two games. Instead, the team rediscovered one of it earlier struggles – special teams.
The Mass Attack was just 2-for-11 on the power play against Maine, while the Black Bears were 3-for-7. The Minutemen had ample opportunity to take advantage of Maine penalties but were shut down by goaltender Ben Bishop and the Maine penalty kill.
The two power play goals were scored by captain defenseman Mike Kostka and forward P.J. Fenton. Kostka leads the team with six goals with the man advantage, and Fenton is second with five.
After that, Cory Quirk has three power play goals, but no one else has more than two.
Currently, the Minutemen are in the middle of the pack in Hockey East in power play success rate, ranking fifth at 16.6 percent.
They are eighth in the conference with a man in the box, at 82.8 percent. Interestingly, Boston University and Boston College – both ranked nationally and sitting at second and fourth respectively in the conference – are the only two teams with a worse success rate on the penalty kill.
Meyers playing well when called upon
At the beginning of the 2007-08 season, it was unknown who would be the Minutemen’s starting goaltender after second-team All-American and team MVP Jon Quick made the jump to professional hockey after two collegiate seasons.
Sophomore Dan Meyers did well in spot starts behind Quick last season, but it was unclear if he could handle the load of a complete season as the full-time starter.
An early injury and a hot start by freshman goalie Paul Dainton brought Meyers back to the same role he played in his freshman year.
His last start came was a 3-2 loss to New Hampshire on Jan. 11, the game that started the Minutemen’s longest losing streak of the season.
On Sunday he played the third period and overtime of a 5-4 loss to Maine. The Minutemen rallied from three goals down in the third period, but fell in overtime.
Meyers has played significantly less time than Dainton, but similar to 2007-08 Meyers is playing well when called upon.
Though his last two decisions were losses, Meyers has a goals-against average of 2.08 and a .929 save percentage, compared to Dainton’s 2.52 GAA and .912 save percentage.
Despite the overtime goal, Meyers held the Black Bears scoreless in the third while his teammates made a comeback.
Still making history
As it stands now, UMass still holds the eighth and final spot for the Hockey East Tournament with four games remaining in the regular season – two against Boston University this Friday and Saturday and two against Merrimack next weekend.
If the Minutemen hold their ground in the conference, it will mark the sixth consecutive season the UMass has reached the postseason, easily a record for the young program, which was resurrected in 1993 after 24 years without ice hockey at UMass.
With eight of 10 teams in Hockey East participating in the tournament, it may not initially appear to be that impressive of a feat.
However, since joining the conference at the start of the 1994-95 season, the program has made significant strides in establishing itself as a perennial contender as opposed to an also-ran.
UMass coach Don Cahoon has brought the team to the postseason in all but his first two years at the helm, the 2000-01 and 2001-02 seasons.
The team reached its only Hockey East finals game in 2004 under Cahoon (a 2-1 triple-overtime loss to Maine) and has reached the semi-finals on two other occasions (2003 and 2007).
Jeremy Rice can be reached at [email protected]
