If the well-worn phrase is true — that the best defense is a good offense — then the Massachusetts Minutemen might be onto something this season.
The No. 20 Minutemen (5-5-2 overall, 1-3-2 Hockey East) overcame a sluggish effort in a 2-1 loss at home to Providence last Thursday to rebound with a 5-1 win at the Friars’ home rink two nights later.
Two UMass goals in Saturday’s win came off the sticks of defensemen, continuing a positive trend for the Minutemen. Defensemen have scored at least one goal in 11 of UMass’s 12 games so far.
“I expect we’ll start getting more goals from our forwards, but it’s great when you can count on (defensemen),” said ninth-year UMass coach Greg Carvel. “If you’re getting a goal a game from your defensemen, that’s like getting a power-play goal a game. So it’s a huge plus.”
Carvel acknowledged goaltending has been an issue. He pulled Michael Hrabal — who had started all of UMass’s games to that point — 14 minutes into a 4-0 loss at Vermont on Nov. 9 after the sophomore gave up two goals. Fellow sophomore Jackson Irving took over and kept the Catamounts scoreless the rest of the way (UVM scored twice with an empty net).
On Nov. 14 vs. Providence, Irving turned away 26 shots in his first collegiate start to keep the Minutemen in the game. Carvel went back to Hrabal for the second game of the Providence series, saying the decision wasn’t a difficult one, citing Hrabal’s two wins vs. the Friars the previous season.
It seems Carvel doesn’t mind having two goalies he can count on.
“If (Hrabal) plays the way he played on Saturday night, he’ll own the net,” Carvel said. “(Irving) has earned a lot of trust just through his time here. (He’s) improved dramatically. (You) know what you’re going to get — you’re going to get good, steady goaltending. That’s all you ever want as a coach. Spectacular goaltending is great, and it wins games for you, but if I can get a goaltender to give me a .920 save percentage, that’s all I ever asked for as a coach. That’s asking a lot, maybe, but Michael should be capable of that.”
The Minutemen are 5-0-0 this season when scoring at least four goals and are winless when scoring three or fewer. All five UMass goals were scored from long range in the win over Providence, and while he’s not complaining, Carvel said he would like to see his team finish on more close-range opportunities.
“I’d like to see us score some more rebound goals, deflection goals,” he said. “We need to get better at going to the net, and more urgency to be around the net. But I’ll take five goals any way we can get them.”
Sophomore forward Aydar Suniev scored twice against Providence on Saturday and now has eight goals on the season, leading the Minutemen. Carvel said Suniev is hungry to score.
“He’s the kind of kid that, he’s not happy unless he’s scoring,” Carvel said. “That’s not always what you’re looking for, but it’s not the worst thing in the world either.”
UMass will take a break from Hockey East action on Friday when it hosts Harvard (7 p.m. on ESPN+), then will host Vermont Sunday at 3 p.m. (NESN).
Carvel said he hopes the pieces are in place for UMass to put its up-and-down start to the season behind it and find more consistency.
“We knew we had a young defense at the beginning of the year. We made a lot of mistakes. We gave up a lot of odd-man rushes. That’s changed,” he said. “We’ve hardly given up any in the last couple of weekends. Then it was the goaltending, and in the last couple of games we’ve had outstanding goaltending. And then it was the scoring — we couldn’t score. Then we got five goals. We put those three things together, and I say this all the time — limit the other team to two, we score three. (I) think we’re capable of that.”
