There’s no place like home, especially when referring to the Massachusetts hockey team.
The Minutemen (11-14-5, 7-12-4 Hockey East) have thrived at the Mullins Center this season, especially in their first 10 home games where they went 7-0-3. Despite the undefeated mark, they still found themselves in the bottom half of the HEA standings thanks to a 0-7-2 mark on the road.
There appears to be a change in fortunes as of late, however, as UMass has lost each of its last three home games, while picking up key road wins against then-No. 1 Boston University and No. 11 Maine.
“We just need to play well,” said UMass coach Don Cahoon. “Whether it’s home or away, if you play well, if you prepare yourself and you compete, then the rest will take care of itself.”
After playing back-to-back road games in Maine last weekend, the Minutemen will try to get back to its winning ways with back-to-back home games against New Hampshire on Friday and Saturday.
The only meeting between these two teams this season came on Nov. 4 in Duram, N.H., which the Wildcats (13-15-3, 10-12-2 HEA) dominated, 7-3.
UNH’s offensive attack was uncharacteristically hot against UMass’ goalies despite a scoring average of three goals per game on the year. Freshman goalie Steve Mastalerz got the call in net for the Minutemen but was pulled midway through the third period after allowing five goals on 28 shots. Fellow freshman netminder Kevin Boyle was no better in his 10 minutes of relief as he allowed two goals on just four shots.
“What we can take from that entire weekend is what we didn’t know then is what we know now,” said Cahoon. “We get smoked at UNH [last time]. They took us apart and beat us in a big way, but then [we] come back the next night and beat [then-No. 1 Boston College] here. That pretty much tells the story of what our season has been about.”
That lack of consistency on a weekly basis has gone on for much longer than just that one weekend, however, as UMass has shown much of that same inconsistency over the past two weekends.
Last Friday in Maine, the Minutemen trailed by as much as 6-0 – ultimately losing 7-3 – but responded the next night with a 4-1 triumph against the same Black Bears squad.
Just the week before, UMass came away with a huge 3-2 road win over the Terriers Feb. 10, but hosted Providence the next night and trailed by as many as three goals en route to a 5-4 defeat.
With the Minutemen trailing the Wildcats by four points for the seventh spot in the HEA standings, they will need to find that consistency if they want to improve their seeding in the playoff race.
New Hampshire’s most goal-scoring success comes when senior forward Stevie Moses is on the ice. Moses is not only leading the Wildcats in points (32), but has also scored a team-high 20 goals.
The issue from there for UNH is its lack of balance in terms of goal scorers. The closest player to Moses’ 20 scores is freshman forward Grayson Downing, who has found the back of the net nine times this year.
The Wildcats have shown plenty of depth between the pipes, where their three goaltenders have combined for a 2.74 goals against average and .905 save percentage.
The primary netminders that’re likely to see ice-time this weekend are senior Matt Di Girolamo (3.41 GAA, .883 save percentage) and freshman Casey Desmith (2.11 GAA, .929 save percentage), who have started 16 and 14 games, respectively, for UNH.
“Both teams are completely different packages at this time of year,” said Cahoon. “It will be about which team executes the best and which team has the mentality to be able to stay with what they’re doing throughout the whole night.”
With that in mind, Cahoon hopes to get the best from his team both nights as the end of the regular season draws near, starting Friday night when the puck drops at 7 p.m. at the Mullins Center.
Nick Canelas can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @MDC_Canelas.
