Despite the 16-2 combined romping that the Massachusetts hockey team witnessed last weekend at the hands of Boston College and Merrimack, the players and coaches can take solace in knowing that two important figures in the team’s identity were able to hit the ice again in preparation for the final eight regular season games.

Junior defender Michael Marcou and senior forward Marc Concannon each got their first live action on Friday, as both continue to work back from their respective injuries.

While Concannon was absent for the home-and-home series against Northeastern, Marcou’s last game was on New Year’s Eve at Wisconsin.

With each player’s absence, the Minutemen (6-15-4, 5-10-4 Hockey East) found themselves lacking a pivotal piece in their team makeup.

“[Marcou] strengthens [the defense] with experience, reading situations and has the ability to jump into the play,” UMass coach Don Cahoon said. “He’s one of the veterans of the team so he gives the youth a little bit of encouragement and hands-on experience.”

The senior assistant captain is responsible for keeping the defense grounded and resilient. With Concannon, or “CoCo” as the team calls him, there’s a general sense of toughness within the group when he is on the ice.

“[Concannon] gives us a physical presence,” Cahoon said. “One of his greatest attributes is his ability to toss his body around – give up his body to make a play, block a shot – the gritty, hard part of the game. That’s a great attribute for us to have him in the lineup on that basis.”

A lack of grittiness was evident for UMass in its 3-0 loss to Northeastern on Jan. 28, according to Cahoon. At the time, Concannon was inactive.

The Minutemen took three penalties in the first half of the game while the Huskies didn’t take any, a statistic that Cahoon linked to a lack of hard play. UMass also lost the faceoff battle 39-14. However, the players rebounded with a hard-fought 2-2 tie the next night.

“We’d have to will ourselves at times to play that way,” Cahoon said. “We noticed it when we went into Northeastern, the next night we willed ourselves and we were a lot better on that front. It’s that type of thing where you kind of get it in bits and pieces when [Concannon’s] not there. You’re more apt to get it and you’re reminded of it and the [players] can internalize it better when he’s in the lineup.”

In the case of Marcou, his injury will take longer to fully recover from, given his five-week absence. The first thing to come back will be his competitive fire.

“If you don’t have anything to really measure it, you lose that game competitiveness because you’ve been away from it,” Cahoon said. “There’s a difference from being naturally competitive as an individual and then being at the level these [players] are playing at for six weeks. So catching up to that is one piece. That will be the easiest part for him.

“Getting himself to be poised while he’s catching up to the speed of the game and the competitiveness that goes on this time of year is the most difficult thing. Getting those two games under his belt will be really helpful to him and then having this week of practice should put him in a good position to be back to really playing at his best.”

Naturally, there was a little rust for both players last weekend. Playing No. 1 BC and No. 12 Merrimack in their first games back didn’t make things any easier.

Marcou and Concannon combined for two total shots in those games. However Concannon assisted Chase Langeraap for UMass’s second goal vs. Merrimack. Marcou was on the ice for Danny Hobbs’s score, the first tally the Minutemen put up on the Warriors.

Going into this weekend’s home games against Boston University and Providence, Marcou has two goals, six assists and eight points to his name this season, while Concannon has racked up two goals, three assists, and five points.

Another full week of practice has allowed both players to take steps towards recovering. But just their presence on game night reaps a significant benefit to the team.

“You need to have a physical presence on the ice,” Cahoon said. “You need to have experience out there. Both of those guys give us that.”

Pete Vasquez can be reached at [email protected].