The UMass hockey team hops aboard the Frozen Four Express this week with stops in Amherst (Hockey East playoffs), Boston (Hockey East semis and finals), Manchester (Northeast Regional) and Buffalo (Frozen Four). The question is who’s the conductor? “I have no idea,” said UMass color analyst Brock Hines. “I can’t figure it out.”
Hines is referring to whether UMass coach Greg Carvel will put sophomore Matt Murray between the pipes or use freshman Filip Lindberg. Murray has 20 wins and is second in Hockey East goals against average; Lindberg was sick most of February and has less than one-fifth the playing time as Murray.
On paper it’s a no-brainer but upon closer inspection…
The season began with a perfunctory sweep of RPI (10-23-3 at this writing) and a split at top-ranked Ohio State (currently 20-9-5 and ranked 6th), but the eureka moment was Oct. 27 when UMass beat Merrimack on the road in overtime. Freshman Philip Lagunov tied the game with 43 seconds left, and freshman Marc Del Gaizo won potted the game winner.
At that moment, the long-suffering fans knew it wouldn’t be another another fast start and quick collapse like Lucy pulling the football out from under Charlie Brown.
UMass ripped off nine straight wins and reached No. 1 in the polls. They won the Hockey East regular season title, have four of the top six scorers in Hockey East (Cale Makar, Mitchell Chaffee, Jacob Pritchard and John Leonard) and Makar is a shoo-in to win the Hobey Baker Award.
After they swept BC for the first time in 25 years, Carvel told them, “You guys proved to me tonight you have the ability to win championships.”
The postseason joyride begins Friday at the Mullins Center, where top-seeded UMass (26-8-0/18-6-0) hosts eighth-seeded UNH (12-13-9/8-10-6) in a best-of-three quarterfinal. UMass beat UNH twice in November by a combined 9-3 score.
The Wildcats finished in eighth place under first-year coach Mike Souza, who in his playing days at UNH was a speedy left wing for coach Dick Umile.
The series winner will advance to the Hockey East semifinals on March 22 at TD Garden in Boston and the championship game will be on March 23.
The question of who starts in goal began in the offseason when Carvel told Bernie Corbett of Hockey on Campus: “Our save percentage was barely over .900 last year and we were still able to win 17 games. We think if we can get it toward .920, it would make us a pretty tough team to beat.”
And that they did, finishing with a save percentage of precisely .920. In the what-have-you-done-for-me-lately department, Murray has an .890 save percentage in seven games since Feb. 1; Lindberg’s stands at .941 in three games. (He missed all of February with a lingering illness).
Murray is 2-1-0 versus UNH including a 3-0 loss last year when Carvel yanked him after he allowed two goals in the first period. His career save percentage against the Wildcats is .902.
Before the UConn game on Feb. 21, Carvel told Hines: “A lot of (Murray’s) goals should be saves there’s no doubt about it.”
Two nights later, he said to WHMP’s Donnie Moorhouse: “To win championships, we’ve gotta be a much more defensive team.”
The Minutemen went about business by beating Merrimack and Maine, but last Friday’s 4-3 loss at UConn was either a snapshot of current form or a meaningless exhibition game (albeit with 5,035 fans at the XL Center).
Carvel used all three goaltenders and they gave up four goals on 20 shots, including two softies by Murray in the first period. Lindberg allowed one goal in the second period, and Brad Arvanitis allowed the game winner from the blue line in the third period.
The Wildcats played more like the Mildcats this season. They scored the seventh-fewest goals in Hockey East, and the goaltending allowed the third-most goals.
Whoever Carvel starts in goal, the UMass offense should offset whatever goaltending miscues may occur.
He won’t have that luxury against tourney-tested clubs like Providence, UMass-Lowell and Northeastern, but he’s got this weekend to figure it out.
All games start at 7 p.m. and tickets start at $20. The students are on break and plenty of good seats are still available.
Gone but not forgotten, Ivan Chukarov has one assist in seven games for the Worcester Railers of the East Coast Hockey League. The 6-foot-3, 200-pound defenseman was used sparingly on the UMass blue line this season. His shining moment came in December against Qunnipiac when he scored the tying goal in the third period of a 3-1 win at the Mullins Center.
Insiders say Chukarov left UMass for Worcester after he got into a scrape with another UMass student-athlete (not a teammate).
A Buffalo Sabres seventh-round pick, Chukarov probably didn’t envision playing in the ECHL where the average weekly salary is $650 a week according to work.chron.com.
NOTES: The NCAA Tournament seeding and pairings will be announced a week from Sunday. The regionals will be in Manchester, N.H. and Providence. Teams, times, ticket prices and television outlets all to be determined and announced. …. Recent bracketology predictions on ncaa.com have UMass playing the opening round against Western Michigan or Harvard. AIC is also in the mix. … UMass led Hockey East in home attendance (5,050) and is the only HE team to crack 5,000. … ESPN’s Chris Peters ranks Jacob Pritchard the 12th-best undrafted free agent: “He isn’t the biggest guy, but I think he has enough speed to garner interest.” …. The last regular season polls were released on Monday and UMass remained at No. 2 in the USA Today/U.S. Hockey Magazine poll, but the loss to UConn allowed Minnesota State (29-7-2) to slip past them in the USCHO poll.