After a stretch of pivotal games the last two weeks, the Massachusetts hockey team is holding on for dear life to make this season worth something.
With just eight conference games remaining for the season, UMass (9-12-5, 5-10-4 Hockey East) finds itself sitting in ninth place in the standings, currently two points out of a conference tournament spot.
The Minutemen will try and take two steps towards crawling back up the standings beginning Friday night on the road against Boston University, followed up by a matchup with Providence Saturday at 7 p.m. at the Mullins Center.
Two weeks ago, entering a home-and-away series on back-to-back nights against UMass-Lowell, the Minutemen were riding a three-game winning streak. In the middle of their streak, the team captured a season series against in-state rival Boston College for the first time since the 2006-07 season.
During the hot run that began with the start of the new year, the team also took a season series against Vermont, winning the second-of-three regular season games at Fenway Park, 3-2, in a dramatic finish in overtime.
Since then, things have taken an ugly turn, as the Minutemen have now dropped four consecutive contests, including two against No. 11 UML and one apiece at the hands of Northeastern [4-3 (OT), Feb. 3] and No. 4 Merrimack (4-3, Feb. 4). During the current slide, UMass also snapped its undefeated home streak, which stood at 7-0-3 before losing to UML.
There are plenty of places to point, concerning the heart of the problem for the Minutemen during their most recent slide. The team is averaging over 15 penalties minutes per game during conference play. UMass is also near the bottom of the league in power-play conversions (16.8 percent) and on the penalty kill (77.4 percent). The team has also given up the second-most goals in conference play (65).
However, despite all their flaws this year, one fact remains clear – the Minutemen are still in it for a run at the postseason.
As it stands now, the Minutemen (14 points) are only two points behind the Huskies (16 points), who currently hold the final playoff spot. Furthermore, they’re only three points away from being tied for sixth place with Providence and New Hampshire (T-17 points).
The Terriers (17-8-1, 13-6-1 HEA) stand alone at the top of the standings in the Hockey East, currently leading UML (26 points) by one point and both Merrimack and Boston College (T-25 points) by two.
BU is led by a slew of goal scorers, as five players on the roster have recorded double-digit goals this year. Matt Nieto and Alex Chiasson lead the team in total points accumulated, racking up 27 apiece.
In two games this season, UMass is 0-1-1 against the Terriers, and have been outscored by a slight margin, 7-6 in those contests. Since 2009-2010, the Minutemen are only 1-5-2 in their last eight games against BU. Their last victory came on Oct. 16, 2009 in a 3-2 win at home.
Providence (10-14-2, 8-10-1 HEA) is currently riding a three-game losing streak. The Friars, like the Terriers, have been successful against UMass in recent years. The Minutemen are 2-3-3 against Providence since 2009-2010, with UMass’ last win coming in a series back on Jan. 30, 2010, in a 4-1 contest on the road.
The Friars are led at the top by a tandem of underclassmen. Freshman Ross Mauermann leads the team with 20 points and has netted eight goals this year. Sophomore Derek Army ranks second on the team in points (16), nailing home eight goals as well this season.
Tim Schaller and Matt Bergland have also contributed on the offense for Providence.
Scott Cournoyer can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @MDC_Cournoyer.
