Carson Gicewicz has only played six games for the Massachusetts hockey team, but he has shown glimpses of how good a player he can be for UMass.

In Sunday’s game against Merrimack, Gicewicz buried his first goal as a Minuteman, but he has played an active role offensively early on. The transfer has three assists to his name on top of the goal.

With the stoppage, we have a minute to take a peek at Gicewicz's goal to get us on the board. Assists going to @OliverChau and Gaudet.#NewMass | #Flagship 🚩 pic.twitter.com/eqO8U20WpX

— UMass Hockey (@UMassHockey) December 6, 2020

After spending most of his college career with St. Lawrence, the redshirt senior made the move to Amherst. Gicewicz is still learning head coach Greg Carvel’s play style, but his athleticism and talent on the ice has been undeniable.

“He’s taken some time to figure out how to play within our system,” Carvel said after Sunday’s game. “I feel as he gets more comfortable playing with our system, being his size, it’s gonna play to his strengths.”

Gicewicz is listed at 6-foot-3 and 213 pounds, and he utilizes that size and strength to take hard shots from the perimeter and throw the body in puck battles.

“He kind of reminds me of [Jake] Gaudet a little bit, big heavy player that’s going to put guys on their butts,” assistant captain Bobby Trivigno said before the season began. “When he gets a full head of steam you better get out of the way or he’s going to plow you over.”

Gicewicz has lined up to the right of Gaudet for the majority of the season on UMass’ top line, and it appears he has found a home there, despite a lot of lineup shifts across the board for the Minutemen early in the season.

“It was a little frustrating through the first handful of games because we didn’t know what combinations to stick with,” Carvel said of the forward group. “But it feels like the top six seem to be established.”

At St. Lawrence Gicewicz had a pretty good first three years of college hockey. In his freshman year he tallied 17 points on nine goals and eight assists, and his numbers trended upward the next two seasons.

Gicewicz finished his career for the Saints with 21 goals and 33 assists. He originally was set to play his senior season at St. Lawrence but missed the entire year last year with an injury. After that, he elected to transfer to a bigger name hockey school in UMass.

That decision looks to be beneficial both for Gicewicz and the Minutemen, as Gicewicz is receiving notable playing time for a ranked school while UMass has found another big-bodied forward with major upside.

And if the Gicewicz that has been on the ice for the Minutemen is still figuring out Carvel’s system, then his future this year once he does learn the system appears to be bright.

“It just takes time and game experience to get into a flow of how we play,” Carvel said.  “And it’s coming around, I think he’s going to be really effective as we keep playing games.”

Colin McCarthy can be reached at [email protected] and followed on twitter @colinmccarth_DC.