After a devastating loss like the 11-1 beat down the Massachusetts hockey team suffered at the hands of No. 13 Vermont Saturday, there are two paths a team can go down. One is to use it as a motivational turning point. The other is to let the effects carry over and send the season into a tailspin.

“After a tough loss, it doesn’t settle well with you,” UMass alternate captain Zack LaRue said. “It’s tough, and it sucks, but you have to move on.”

Talk to anyone on the Minutemen, and it is clear UMass is out to do just that. The team has taken accountability for the loss, a reassuring sign the Minutemen have the leadership in place to turn things around.

“We certainly need to apologize to our fans,” UMass coach John Micheletto said in his postgame news conference after Saturday’s debacle.

Senior captain Troy Power went into more detail Monday before the team’s practice.

“Certainly that wasn’t the way we wanted to come out or compete,” Power said. “We as captains and seniors have been letting things slide and we take responsibility for that. Right now, we’re doing things that are hindering us from (having success), and we’re looking to get rid of those and get this thing rolling in the right direction.”

On Tuesday, the Minutemen will have a chance to start from square one when they face the same Catamounts team that beat them by 10 goals at the Mullins Center.

Usually, a strange schedule like UMass has faced this week – the team played back-to-back nights against different teams and now will complete a home-and-home series three days later – might be a cause for concern. However, for the Minutemen, the timing could not be better.

“Guys are excited,” LaRue said. “(When you lose like that), you might not be playing that team for another month. We’re lucky enough that we can get after it again after three days and prove to them that’s not the team we are.”

LaRue and Power both mentioned attention to detail and the little things as main areas UMass can improve in.

“It’s battles along the wall. Getting the puck out. Taking a hit to make a play. Making a tape to tape pass. When you get away from those little things, it’s just going to get worse for you,” LaRue said.

The bottom line, as LaRue noted, is the team needs to care about each other a little more.

“You have to be committed to your teammates,” LaRue said.

Again, it was Power that expanded that idea.

“We all love each other. We’re all here for the same thing,” he said. “We all want to have success.”

Micheletto returns to Vermont

Tuesday also marks a return for Minutemen coach John Micheletto, who will be back at the campus he spent nine years coaching at from 2003 to 2012. Micheletto joined the Vermont coaching staff as an assistant in 2003 and was promoted to associate head coach and director of recruiting in 2006.

In his time with the Catamounts, Micheletto helped them make the difficult leap from the Eastern College Athletic Conference to the Hockey East and assisted them on their way to a Frozen Four appearance in 2009.

“I have all the respect in the world for (Micheletto) and his staff and certainly their players,” Vermont coach Kevin Sneddon said after the game Saturday night.

Micheletto served under Sneddon for all nine years he was with the Catamounts.

Since being hired as the head coach at UMass in 2012, Micheletto and the Minutemen are 2-4 against Vermont.

Puck drop is set for 7 p.m. at Gutterson Fieldhouse in Burlington, Vermont.

Ross Gienieczko can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @RossGien.