AMHERST – Greg Carvel walked into the dressing room immediately after the second period ended and made a bold statement.
“I usually wait (and) give them time to settle down,” the UMass coach said. “I went directly in there and I said ‘there’s no way we’re losing this game. You guys are playing too well, you deserve it, we’ll find a way.’”
No. 8 UMass was dominating in every category imaginable on the ice through 40 minutes Friday night at the Mullins Center, except the only one that counts. The Minutemen were outshooting No. 10 Providence 31-8 while humming in the Friars zone and keeping the pressure in their half of the rink. Yet when the buzzer sounded at the end of the second period, it was still tied.
Carvel made his speech in the locker room, and although the Minutemen weren’t as dominant in the third period from a shots perspective, they got the Friars where it counted most. Senior captain Niko Hildenbrand scored on back-to-back shifts early in the period to provide the difference in UMass’ 3-1 win over Providence.
“It was important that Carvy came in and said ‘we’re going to win this game and we’re playing well and keep going here,’” Hildenbrand said. “It brought a lot of momentum for us, but we knew we were playing well at that time. It was just something’s going to fall, and it ended up falling for us.”
It was fitting that Hildenbrand scored the two big goals for UMass (17-9-2, 10-6-2 Hockey East) after the week the Minutemen had at practice. Carvel said he put the onus on the captains to be better leaders and all three of them answered the bell in some capacity.
But none made as big of an impact on Friday’s game as Hildenbrand, who almost had a chance to complete his first career hat trick but missed the empty net in the final minute. He broke the 1-1 tie on his second shift of the third period by deflecting Zac Jones’ wrist shot past Providence goalie Michael Lackey, who finished with 33 saves on the night. On his very next turn on the ice, he buried a backhanded feed from Bobby Trivigno over Lackey’s shoulder to give UMass more than enough cushion to close out the game.
“He’s been a great captain this week,” Carvel said. “As much as the coaches have to give answers, the captains need to lead the way so we challenged our captains, and boy did he step up. Not just the two goals, but he was playing the body, a lot of hits, I’m sure he blocked a shot or two. He’s a career winger playing center because we don’t have enough centers and he’s winning draws, probably our best faceoff guy (Friday).”
Hildenbrand received an offensive boost from being moved up to the second line between John Leonard and Trivigno. The trio was on the offensive for most of the first two periods, but couldn’t seem to find that final touch around the goal to threaten Lackey. Early in the third, though, everything clicked as a strong cycle led to Jones being able to fire what Hildenbrand described as a perfect shot to deflect toward the goal for Hildenbrand to redirect. Then Leonard did what he does best and had a strong individual rush into the zone, curling behind the net before dropping a pass to Trivigno, who sent a backhanded feed to Hildenbrand for the goal.
“Our line was pressing all game and we had a lot of good chances,” Hildenbrand said. “… They’re two extremely high-skilled players and it was awesome to get a chance to play with them. We gelled (Friday) really well and it was a nice change of pace.”
The victory started with UMass rediscovering its standard of play, something Carvel freely admits the coaches had let slide the past two weekends. The Minutemen were buzzing from the opening faceoff and outworking the Friars (14-8-5, 8-7-2) in all three zones. Unlike previous strong starts in recent weeks, though, UMass capitalized early with Reed Lebster scoring 5 minutes and 32 seconds into the game to give the Minutemen the lead.
Carvel said he never worried about his team scoring as long as it played up to the standard because when its compete level is good enough, the Minutemen will create chances and limit the opponents’ opportunities. That’s exactly waht happened as UMass stifled Providence in space for 60 minutes and made life pretty easy for Filip Lindberg in goal.
The sophomore had to make just 14 saves to earn the victory, although he would want to have back the shot Matt Koopman banked in from a tough-angle to tie the game late in the second period. Otherwise, the Minutemen smothered the Friars and outcompeted them in every area in a return to their standard. Trivigno said the effort was a continuation from a tougher-than-usual week of practice in which there was one common theme throughout the week.
“A big emphasis this week was battling hard and we did that every day this week, even Thursday we were doing some three-on-three drills,” Trivigno said. “Going into this weekend it was all about compete – and it will be (Saturday) – but it starts in practice so if we’re not going to practice hard, we’re not going to play hard. It translated into the game.”