The Massachusetts hockey team is slated for its second home-and-home Hockey East series of the calendar year this weekend, a showdown with the Merrimack Warriors.
After a slow start to the season, Merrimack (8-11-1, 4-6-1 HEA) has regained traction in the last month, winning four of its last five contests, including a 5-2 victory over No. 2 Boston College.
Like UMass (10-9-2, 3-6-2 HEA), the Warriors have a young roster with 10 freshmen. In spite of this, their style of play is largely the same as it always is, physical, detail-oriented hockey. Merrimack’s success hinges on small things: winning one-on-one puck battles, clogging the neutral and defensive zones and scoring goals in tight to the net.
One of the Warriors’ strengths is typically their penalty kill, but it has faltered this year, only clipping at a 73 percent rate. UMass has the second highest power play percentage in the country at 28 percent, only trailing the reigning national champion Denver Pioneers. The Minutemen’s potent, skill-heavy power play is an area that has the potential to swing two games in their favor this weekend.
While UMass has the clear skill advantage in this matchup, head coach Greg Carvel isn’t looking to rely on that skill to carry them this weekend. Rather, he wants to see his team work harder around the net, build up traffic and disruption to lead to more goals, an area he felt they were lacking against Northeastern Saturday night.
“The focus point is we didn’t get to the net,” Carvel said. “We don’t do a good enough job, don’t have enough mindset of wanting to go hard to that area and stop and stay and find a loose puck. I thought that was the glaring thing to me in the [Northeastern game]. We discussed it and we’ll work on it all week and hopefully start seeing some goals scored that way.”
An aspect UMass has the potential to gain an edge in against Merrimack is the play of its fourth line. Freshman James Duerr has centered the bottom unit for most of the season, but has worked with a rotation of five different players on his wings due to some of the injuries that have plagued the Minutemen.
Sophomore Bo Cosman has emerged in the last month as a steady presence with Duerr. His physicality and speed have meshed well with Duerr’s grit and the two have looked strong together, regardless of the third linemate. This weekend, it will likely be either Joey Musa or Nick VanTassell after Cam O’Neill was ruled out with an injury, his second of the season.
“You just want your fourth line to be a high energy line that doesn’t hurt you and chips in a goal every once in a while,” Carvel said. “[Cosman]’s really starting to come along, he plays with pace and he makes things happen on the ice. Duerr, to me, is learning how to be an effective player. I thought he played well this weekend.”
One of the biggest incentives for UMass this weekend is the ability to leapfrog Merrimack in the HEA standings. The Minutemen are currently ninth in the conference with 12 points, while the Warriors are two spots ahead of them with 14 points. Depending on other results around the league, two regulation wins could get UMass all the way up to the fifth spot.
If nothing else, it’s a chance to gain ground in the standings before nine of the final 11 HEA games come against teams currently above it.
In other news, goaltender Michael Hrabal found himself on two lists this week. Hrabal was named HEA Defensive Player of the Week after he stopped 77 of 79 shots against him in the two games against Northeastern. He was also one of five HEA goalies named to the Richter Award Watch List on Wednesday, an award given to the most outstanding goaltender in Division I each year.
The series kicks off on Friday, Jan. 17 at Lawler Arena in North Andover at 7 p.m. and will finish Saturday, Jan. 18 at 7 p.m. at the Mullins Center. Both games can be streamed live on ESPN+.
“There’s a certain way we need to play, doesn’t matter who we’re playing against,” Carvel said. “If we play a certain way, we usually find a way to win.”
Matt Skillings can be reached at [email protected] and followed on X @matt_skillings.
