The No. 15 Massachusetts hockey team has gotten off to a 3-2 start to the season, but this weekend’s home-and-home series with the UConn Huskies brings UMass (3-2) into its first test against a Hockey East rival.
Both teams have experienced growing pains to start their seasons, with UConn (3-2) splitting a series against Holy Cross and UMass splitting one this past weekend with Sacred Heart. That said, HEA conference play brings a whole new level of intensity to the table. Between the Minutemen’s inexperienced defensive core and the Huskies’ 10 freshmen, this weekend will truly give both teams a base level assessment of where they stand within the conference.
After a down season in 2023-24, UConn went through an overhaul of its roster in the offseason, bringing in a talented freshmen class and four transfer students. Perhaps its most jarring change comes in net, where the Huskies brought in Tyler Muszelik from New Hampshire. Muszelik was acquired from the transfer portal to take over the starting role and put some experience in front of their two first-year netminders.
Through four games played so far, Muszelik has posted a 3-1 record, conceding nine goals while holding a modest .904 save percentage. Although he has been at UNH the last two seasons, Muszelik has never faced off against the Minutemen.
Freshman goaltender Thomas Heaney cannot be ruled out either. Heaney got the start in UConn’s last game against Boston University, a 4-2 loss against a potent Terrier offense. BU ranks in the top 12 in team goal scoring nationwide.
Through five games, UConn has been led offensively by Jake Percival and Jake Richard, who each have four goals and two assists. The Huskies’ top four point-scorers so far are all returners, their freshman class is taking some time to adjust to the pace of college hockey. As far as HEA matchups go, this is about as ideal of a first showdown as it can get for the young UMass backend to start their conference careers off with two shutdown games.
Looking at where the Minutemen stand heading into this weekend, Cole O’Hara has been at the forefront of the UMass offense, along with linemates Aydar Suniev and Dans Locmelis. O’Hara has recorded a point in each of his five games so far and has been effective at both 5-on-5 and on the power play.
“Playing with confidence,” O’Hara said of his strong start. “I’ve got good linemates, [Locmelis] and [Suniev] are good players, kind of just working the chemistry, feeding off of each other, talking a lot, it’s been easy with them.”
Although Locmelis has the least offensive production on that line through five games, UMass head coach Greg Carvel had nothing but good things to say about the sophomore and the jump he’s made from his first season.
“The only thing he’s not doing is scoring goals, he’s doing absolutely everything else,” Carvel said. “He’s doing everything. I don’t even notice in the games how well he’s playing until I watch the video over and I’m like, ‘holy cow.’ His skating is so strong, his hockey sense is so great. I’d like to see him get more chances, but he’s creating chances for others.”
Defensively, Carvel moved some pieces around on Saturday night against Sacred Heart. After playing with each other through the first four games of the season, he split up the freshman duo of Larry Keenan and Francesco Dell’Elce, pairing Keenan with Owen Murray. This allowed him to play on his strong side, while Dell’Elce played next to Lucas Ölvestad.
The moves paid dividends almost immediately. Dell’Elce broke out offensively with two goals and an assist, while the defense kept Sacred Heart to one goal against after it scored four the night before.
“We liked the looks, we’ll stick with it,” Carvel said. “We liked getting [Keenan] on his strong side. We felt like splittingup the experience of Murray and Ölvestad with the two young kids would probably be better, so they worked well. Dell’Elce had a hell of a game; to me, he’s been the most overachieving player to this point for us of the newcomers so we will stick with that foursome.”
HEA play kicks off for the Minutemen on Friday, Oct. 25 at 7 p.m. at the Mullins Center.
Matt Skillings can be reached at [email protected] and followed on X @matt_skillings.
