On Saturday, Massachusetts hockey head coach Greg Carvel reached 150 wins at UMass with the team’s 5-4 victory over Bentley in their season opener.
A hat trick from sophomore Aydar Suniev carried the Minutemen (1-0) past the Falcons (0-1) with the help of goals from fellow sophomore Jack Musa and freshman Daniel Jenčko. The success from the young offensive corps was aided by first-string goaltender Michael Hrabal and his 33 saves.
“I had no idea about it,” Carvel stated after the game. “I’m very proud. 150 here. I said to the players after the game, ‘It’s special for me.’”
Carvel is currently in his ninth season with UMass. In 2016, he arrived to interview at a program that was consistently losing and finishing as bottom feeders in the Hockey East. According to a podcast interview, former chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy made a point to meet with Carvel multiple times during his visit. Hours after his interview, Carvel received the job offer and decided to take a chance on what he knew the program could be.
In five years, he transformed Minutemen hockey and built a team that played in consecutive national championships, reaching the pinnacle with a NCAA title win in 2021. That same year, the team also achieved their first of two consecutive Hockey East Tournament Championships. Of the five trips the hockey team has made to the national tournament in their 31 years as a Division I program, four have been under Carvel.
During his time at UMass, Carvel has proved his talent as a coach and then some. His performance on the bench has not gone unnoticed. Most notably, he won the Spencer Penrose Award in 2019, honoring him as the top coach in NCAA Division I men’s ice hockey. In that same year, he received the Bob Kullen Coach of the Year Award for being the best coach in Hockey East and the Clark Hodder Award as the New England Coach of the Year. He is the fifth coach ever to win all three awards in the same year.
At Massachusetts, Carvel has coached talent including 27 Hockey East All-Stars, seven All-Americans, two Hobey Baker finalists and a Hobey Baker winner. During his tenure, 18 players have been selected in the NHL Entry Draft. Six of the 18 have made their NHL debut and four (Cale Makar, Mario Ferraro, Zac Jones, Matthew Kessel) appear on NHL rosters for the 2024-25 season.
Carvel’s track record with academics has been strong as well. 22 of his players were named to the Hockey East Men’s All-Academic Team in 2023-24, with four individuals making the conference’s Academic All-Star Team. At 2024’s SAMYs, Carvel’s team won the male F.A.R. Team GPA Award with a 3.63 team GPA in the fall 2023 semester.
“I think about all the great kids and all the efforts they’ve made on my behalf,” Carvel said. “It’s really humbling,”
Before coming to the Minutemen, Carvel spent five years coaching at St. Lawrence University, his alma mater. In 2015, he won the Tim Taylor Award as the Eastern College Athletic Conference’s coach of the year.
Carvel also has 15 seasons of experience in the NHL, eight of which came as an assistant coach with the Anaheim Ducks and Ottawa Senators. In 2015, he was an assistant coach for the U.S. Men’s National Team for their third-place finish in the IIHF Men’s World Championship.
Carvel will look to add on to his winning legacy with UMass in 2024-25. On Friday, the team plays Omaha in the first game of the two-day Ice Breaker Tournament hosted by the Minnesota Gophers at Orleans Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Caroline Burge can be reached at [email protected] and followed on X @Caroline_Burge.
