The Massachusetts hockey team is set to take on Alaska Fairbanks in a non-conference two game home series.
The Minutemen (11-10-2, 4-7-2 Hockey East) are coming off a confidence boosting win over the Merrimack Warriors. The win featured a hat trick from Hobey Baker nominee Cole O’Hara in addition to an assist.
O’Hara has been one of the most consistent forwards for the Minutemen this year. The junior is currently sitting at sixth in college hockey in scoring with 31 points on 12 goals and 19 assists. In HEA, O’Hara sits at No. 1 in scoring, three points ahead of Northeastern’s Jack Williams and Boston College’s Gabe Perreault.
The downside to the Saturday game against the Warriors is UMass’ other Hobey Baker nominee, Aydar Suniev, left the game with an injury. Head coach Greg Carvel said after the game that Suniev will be out with a lower body injury and it will likely be a little while before he’s back in the lineup.
On Saturday, the Minutemen’s power play was brought back to life after making some adjustments to it. The first unit was led by defenseman Francesco Dell’Elce, who helped the unit to three goals on their four man advantages.
“We went three games without a power play goal, decided it was time to shake things up then we scored three power play goals Saturday night,” head coach Carvel said. “[Dell’Elce] is a very good young player, growing into a very good offensive defenseman.”
The young freshmen pairing of Dell’Elce and Larry Keenan have started to grow into their roles as the second pairing. The two have played a majority of the season together and showed young defensive mistakes to start. Now over halfway into the season, the freshmen have become consistent on the blue line for UMass.
On Saturday night, Dell’Elce totaled a team leading four blocked shots. He has a team leading plus nine with Keenan not far behind him at plus six.
“Ideally you have the younger guy with the veteran guy who can come back to the bench and talk out situations but also baptism by fire for [Keenan and Dell’Elce] is throw them in and make them swim,” Carvel said.
The area where Carvel wants to see improvement is in the teams’ depth scoring. O’Hara and Suniev have provided a majority of the scoring for UMass but haven’t found production from its bottom two lines.
On top of the scoring, Carvel wants to see goaltenders Michael Hrabal and Jackson Irving make important saves to keep the Minutemen in games. Hrabal sits at a .911 save percentage through 21 games and in seven games, Irving is at a .943 save percentage, playing a majority of his games in non-conference play.
“We’re getting a ton of chances, we need to find ways to score goals,” Carvel said. “We’re out chancing teams almost every night and then our goaltenders need to make a little more timely saves.”
On the other side, Alaska Fairbanks’ (7-9-5) losing record isn’t necessarily indicative of what the team has done this season. The Seawolves took, at the time, No. 3 Minnesota to overtime in a 1-1 game, where they eventually won in the shootout. The team also beat University of Minnesota Duluth and Notre Dame when it sat at No. 18 in the USCHO polls.
The Nanooks are led by junior Kyle Gaffney who has totaled 14 points on six goals and eight assists. Defensively, William Lawson-Body leads in blocked shots with 27 as a forward and freshman defenseman Carson Reed with 24.
This week was a bye week in HEA for UMass, but with Alaska Fairbanks itching to get a team on their schedule, Carvel opted to play the Nanooks.
“Those independent teams are always looking for games this time of year,” Carvel said. “When [Carvel and the Seawolves] saw that [the week] was open, it was an easy decision. Ideally, they like us to return but that’s a lot to go to Alaska and back, especially in the middle of the Hockey East schedule.”
The Minutemen are set to take on the Nanooks on Friday, Jan. 24 and Saturday, Jan. 25. The first game is set for 7 p.m. and the second at 6 p.m. at Mullins Center.
Kayla Gregoire can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @Kaygregoire.