The No. 12 Massachusetts hockey team is set to wrap up its 2024 regular season with a two-game series against No. 9 University of Maine. UMass (19-10-3, 12-8-2 Hockey East) comes into the weekend tied for fourth place in the Hockey East Standings, with Maine (20-10-2, 12-9-1 HEA) holding a two-point lead, sitting in third.
Regardless of the outcome of the final two games of the season, the Minutemen and the Black Bears will have a first-round bye in the Hockey East tournament. With Boston College and Boston University clinching the one and two seeds, the third, fourth and fifth seeds are all up for grabs.
The last matchup between the two teams was played on Feb. 3 in Amherst at the Mullins Center when Maine defeated UMass 1-0. With the teams now playing back-to-back games on the smaller sheet at Alfond Arena, the games could play out completely differently.
“I thought we played pretty well against [Maine in the first game]. Their goaltender, if I remember correctly, played pretty well. I don’t remember what the [scoring] chances were,” head coach Greg Carvel said. “… They score a lot of goals up there, so I don’t know how it’ll play out. I won’t be surprised if it’s a 2-1 or a 5-4 game.”
If offense is to come from the Black Bears over the weekend, there’s a good chance it’ll have something to do with the Nadeau brothers. Bradly and Josh each lead Maine in goals and assists, respectively, and each have 39 points in 32 games played.
“Just got to play hard on everybody on [Maine’s] team, they’re all good players,” junior Ryan Lautenbach said. “We’re just going to prepare for [the Nadeau brothers] the same way.”
UMass has generated a lot of its success recently on the power play, scoring twice on the man advantage on Saturday against UMass Lowell. The unit sits with a 21.3 conversion percentage on the year, looking to continue its success through the finish line.
“We’ve split up that first unit that we went with for 80 percent of the year, and now we’ve got two units,” Carvel said. “It’s kind of like when you change the lines up, it kind of rattles the cage and maybe gets you refocused.”
The Minutemen come into the final series of the year fresh off a two-game sweep over UMass Lowell, with both wins coming in overtime. The team showed it could win the tough games, no matter what the score was.
“I think we’re playing our best hockey at the right time of the year,” Carvel said. “From goaltending to defensive play to special teams. I’m happy. I’d like to see us score a little more five on five, but we’re getting a lot of chances.”
With the season coming to an end, wins matter now more than ever down the stretch for all teams, with each hoping to clinch a better seed and play in the postseason on home ice.
The seeding also comes with different matchups, giving each team the ability to play lower-seeded teams based on the more points they end with.
“I don’t know the stats, but I imagine home ice win percentage is a little higher than on the road,” Carvel said. “I think that the opponent’s probably more important. I think some teams match well against others. You look at my time here at UMass, it becomes pretty stark which teams we have done well against and which ones we haven’t. To me, it’s almost more about your opponent than it is location.”
The opponents aren’t yet known for anyone in the conference, but the final weekend will help paint a better picture of the future to come for its teams. The biggest series of the weekend will have its first puck drop from Orono on Friday, March 8 at 7 p.m.
“We’re looking at it as if we need to win both games to get home ice,” Carvel said. “And if we don’t, that’s on us.”
Mike Maynard can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @mikecmaynard.
