After a tough defensive game against Merrimack on Friday night, the Massachusetts hockey team’s defense improved in Saturday’s matchup with the Warriors (9-12-1, 5-7-1 Hockey East).
Head coach Greg Carvel disapproved of his fifth and sixth defensemen on Friday, so he decided to shake up the pairing. He opted to bench freshman Finn Loftus and put a forward as the extra skater. He also made Kennedy O’Connor the sixth defenseman, keeping Linden Alger with O’Connor.
During Merrimack and the Minutemen’s (11-10-2, 4-7-2 HEA) first matchup of the series, both Alger and O’Connor were exposed on the goals. On Saturday, though, the pairing had a bounce-back performance and played a much cleaner defensive game.
After not seeing much time on defense in his first two years with UMass, O’Connor has started to find more minutes in his junior season with the team short on defensemen. In that time, O’Connor’s had his ups and downs, but he was solid on the blue line Saturday.
O’Connor and Alger have proven to be a physical pairing for the Minutemen. Throughout Saturday, they made hits along the boards that kept the Warriors away from UMass’ net.
“[Alger and O’Connor] are our big guys,” Carvel said. “You saw [O’Connor] hit some guys, you saw [Alger] hit some guys. So they know their role, [to] just play good above the puck and get the puck out of the zone.”
Lucas Ölvestad played his worst game of the season on Friday night, but he made positive tweaks as well during Saturday’s matchup. Despite being whistled for a penalty, the junior transfer and his pairing partner Owen Murray continued to be the most consistent pairing for the Minutemen.
Even when mistakes were made, the two skated back to eliminate any danger for goaltender Jackson Irving. In the second period, Ölvestad turned over the puck to a Warrior player but quickly skated up to stay on the player. His pressure steered the player away from Irving.
Murray had a similar play in the second period that helped limit Merrimack to just 28 shots on net.
Despite the pairing’s solid performance, they did allow the second goal of the game after Murray didn’t defend Tyler Young on the right side of the post.
The second pairing of Francesco Dell’Elce and Larry Keenan has made its share of defensive mistakes this season, but both players showed positive signs of improvement on Saturday. On UMass’ four penalty kills, Dell’Elce stayed on the ice for a majority of the time.
“Me and [Keenan] played together last year so we always knew the chemistry was there,” Dell’Elce said. “Through the growth of being [at UMass], I think we’ve just gotten more reliable defensively and I think we’ve come a long way.”
When the Minutemen were put on a 4-on-3 after Keenan drew a tripping call on Nick Pierre, Dell’Elce was on the ice for a majority of the penalty. During that time, the freshman kept the puck in the zone on the Warriors’ attempts to clear the puck. He also opened up lanes for UMass forwards to take shots on Merrimack goaltender Max Lundgren.
Dell’Elce totaled four blocked shots to go along with his five shots, a majority of which came on the power play.
“[Dell’Elce] gets pucks to the net with some mustard on it,” Carvel said. “He’s elusive, he moves well and he knows when and how to shoot the puck and the puck gets to the net.”
The freshman and Ölvestad combined for four points to add onto their big defensive performances on Saturday.
The Minutemen defense will look to continue its good play on Friday, Jan. 24, as it starts a two-game home series against Alaska Fairbanks. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m. at the Mullins Center.
“I like our backend,” Carvel said. “We’ve got a good mix of some size and some offensive-minded guys. Ölvestad and Keenan are good two-way guys, so we’ve got a good mix.”
Kayla Gregoire can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @Kaygregoire.