With the first half of the 2024-25 season coming to a close, the Massachusetts hockey team has its sight set on the NCAA tournament. However, the Minutemen (8-7-2, 2-5-2 Hockey East) need to continue their slow incline in performance to be a serious contender in March.
The pieces have slowly but surely found their footing.
“Our goaltending is getting better, our special teams are strong, our young defense is maturing, and we’ve got a few more forwards … [who need] to get us a goal more often,” head coach Greg Carvel said.
At the start of the season, Carvel knew the young defensemen would have some maturing to do on the ice and relied on goaltender Michael Hrabal to step up to the plate and make some key saves as UMass overcame this hump.
But that was not the case.
Hrabal’s save percentage fell at the very bottom of HEA goaltending and he struggled with consistency game-to-game. He made poor decisions with the puck and allowed opponents to exploit his weaker right side to find the back of the net. Against the University of Vermont on Nov. 10, Hrabal should have been pulled once allowing the first goal just over a minute into the game, something Carvel said he wished he did rather than waiting for the second goal to slip by. Taking his place, second-string goaltender Jackson Irving stood tall in net and proved himself to be a solid, reliable backup to the Utah Hockey Club’s second round 38th pick.
“We threw [Irving] in last year into a game late in the game and I had no hesitation to do that. He’s only gotten better and better, he’s been really good this year,” Carvel said. “… He’s played five periods, maybe six periods in his career, and he’s got a .950 save percentage.”
The Minutemen will need Irving to be at the top of his game in the second half of the season if Hrabal and Team Czechia have a solid run in the World Juniors Hockey Championship. Hrabal also needs to return focused, building off his success at the end of the first half going from a .898 save percentage from his first seven games to a .917 save percentage in his last six games, including a shutout against Boston University on Dec. 7.
“[Hrabal’s] immaturity was shown at the beginning of this year. He was very inconsistent, but I think he’s going through a very good growth phase right now, he’s taking big steps and [in] his last number of games he’s been outstanding,” Carvel said.
If neither of these happen with goaltending, UMass risks losing its footing in the NCAA tournament and will need to rely on other teams to secure a spot like in the 2023-24 season.
UMass’ group of forwards will also need to pull together a game plan if freshman Daniel Jenčko and Team Slovakia make it far in World Juniors. However, his absence is not unknown to the Minutemen as Jenčko suffered a hand injury and was ruled out for four weeks of the season.
Returning, he has already scored two goals in three games. Now with junior Michael Cameron back in the lineup as well, Jenčko’s potential absence should not be a detriment to the Minutemen’s record and UMass will get even better when he returns.
Forwards like Bo Cosman, Nick VanTassell and James Duerr had more time on the ice when Jenčko was injured. They proved that with a little refinement, the bottom six group of forwards can surface as difference makers every now and then. However, because this group currently lacks in scoring production, it is key for these six to stay out of the penalty box and make it easier on the team’s top forwards to focus on offense rather than the penalty kill.
Special teams have been working for and against the Minutemen too. The two power play units finally found a rhythm and some consistency in the latter part of the first half and the penalty kill units found a groove in disrupting their opponent’s man-advantage. Their special teams rank second and sixth in HEA, respectively, and continuing to improve both sides of special teams will give them a significant advantage no matter which side of the puck they’re on.
“Every power play we get, it usually brings us momentum,” Carvel said. “We usually do something good on power plays.”
The main shift that needs to happen, though, is maturity. Controlling emotions is part of the game, and the end of the first half saw some improvements, especially around the net, with the Minutemen working to move away from the chaos rather than instigate it.
Sophomore Aydar Suniev also learned to keep himself composed after taking two unsportsmanlike conducts and being sent to the box immediately after scoring. In the third period, too, UMass needs to keep its game clean and to its identity instead of letting the desperation – especially when behind on the scoreboard – take control and send players to the box.
“I was very proud of how [Hrabal] and the team when the game was getting a little out of hand, and penalties and five-minute majors were being handed out,” Carvel said regarding UMass’ first matchup against BU. “Our guys … stayed calm and stayed even.”
Specifically, though, these improvements need to be evident in HEA battles. Playing against high-profile teams gets the Minutemen amped, according to both Carvel and the players. But coming out of the first half with only two conference wins only shows that opponents know how to exploit UMass’ weaknesses, causing it to suffer bad losses that can potentially dull overall morale as the season continues.
Resting in HEA rankings at eight with nine points behind Vermont with 13 is telling in itself that inconsistency across the line chart can break UMass’ season. The turnaround for the Minutemen needs to happen as soon as the second half hits.
“This is an NCAA level team,” Carvel said. “ … We’re now in a place where we can determine our own fate.”
UMass returns to the Mullins Center Dec. 28 for a midseason exhibition game against Simon Fraser at 6 p.m. before heading to the Desert Hockey Classic tournament in Tempe, AZ. Puck drop against Cornell is set for 6 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 3 to kick off the season’s second half and can be watched on NCHC.tv.
Sydney Ciano can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter/X @SydneyCiano.
