For the first time in history, UMass has the best player in Hockey East.
Sophomore defenseman Cale Makar was unanimously named the conference’s Player of the Year at the league’s awards banquet Thursday in Boston. The Calgary, Alberta, Canada native led the league with 46 points (15 goals and 31 assists) while helping lead the Minutemen to the school’s first Hockey East regular-season championship.
UMass coach Greg Carvel was named the Hockey East Coach of the Year at the banquet, becoming the second Minuteman boss to earn the honor (Don Cahoon won it in 2002-03). Carvel led the revitalization of the UMass program going from five wins his first season to a school-record 28 already this year, which included a program-best 18 in Hockey East.
ALL-STAR SALUTE — UMass placed a league-high six players on the Hockey East All-Star teams released Wednesday by the conference.
The Minutemen put two players on each of the three teams, led by Makar, the only unanimous first-team selection. Mitchell Chaffee, the league’s scoring champion, was also a first-team pick. They were the Minutemen’s first two first-team picks since Justin Braun in 2010.
The dynamic scoring duo of Jacob Pritchard and John Leonard were the UMass representatives on the second team. On the third team were defensemen Marc Del Gaizo and Mario Ferraro. Del Gaizo was also named to the all-rookie team on Tuesday.
The six honorees were a program record and bring UMass’ total to 15 during its affiliation with the league.
HOBEY NEEDS MORE CALE — Makar was named one of the top-10 finalists for the Hobey Baker Award on Wednesday, as expected.
The sophomore has set the program record for points by a defenseman and assists by a defenseman in a single season. He also ranks sixth nationally in points per-game (1.28), fifth in assists per-game (0.86) and second in defenseman scoring.
35TH ANNIVERSARY — Hockey East released its 35th anniversary teams Thursday, which featured three Minutemen among the selections and one other as an honorable mention.
All three UMass representatives came on the list of 35 defensemen and goalies voted upon by fans, coaches, league officials and media members. Jonathan Quick received the most votes among defensemen/goalies, reeling in 695 points, which is third most among all honorees. He was joined by Tomas Poeck and Makar, who was the only current player named to the team.
No UMass player was named among the 35 forwards on the list, although James Marcou was an honorable mention.
BC SCANDAL — Hockey East concluded its investigation Wednesday into some inappropriate remarks exchanged during Game 1 of the quarterfinals series between Boston College and Providence on Friday. In a statement, the league said it was “unable to determine the source of the remarks with the degree of certainty necessary to take further action at this time.”
The incident in question was an reportedly racist remark allegedly hurled at Providence forward Vimal Sukumaran by a Boston College player during Friday’s game. An on-ice official reported what they heard to Hockey East commissioner Joe Bertagna, but neither the league nor Boston College were able to identify the player who was allegedly involved in the incident.
The Eagles eventually won the series in three games and will face UMass on Friday at 7:30 p.m. in the semifinals at TD Garden.