AMHERST – Much more than a spot in the Hockey East semifinals could be at stake for the UMass hockey team in the Mullins Center.
Providence, the No. 7 seed fresh off a 2-1 win over Vermont on Wednesday, visits the second-seeded Minutemen in the quarterfinal round at 7 p.m. Saturday. The winner advances to the conference semifinals March 18 at TD Garden.
UMass (19-12-2), the No. 12 team in the country, might also be playing for its spot in the NCAA Tournament for a third-straight season. The Minutemen are ranked 12th in the PairWise formula, which tries to mimic the method that determines at-large participants in the national postseason, after two losses to Boston College last weekend.
Only 16 teams qualify for the NCAA hockey tournament. Six of those teams automatically book spots through winning conference tournaments, which only leaves 10 at-large spots. That’s not a lot of wiggle room for UMass if there are upsets. Plus its PairWise ranking would drop even further with a loss.
“It’s playoff hockey. We’ve got to rise. We’ve got to be better,” UMass coach Greg Carvel said. “That’s the hope is that we’ll find a new level of play.”
The Minutemen haven’t lost a playoff game since the 2019 national championship game. The entire postseason was canceled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and UMass won both the Hockey East tournament and NCAA championship last season.
“It’s not about how hard we play. It’s about how smart we play,” Carvel said. “If we can all be committed to playing smart hockey – I know the kids always play hard – this time of the year you’ve got to be smart.”
He pointed to the two breakaway goals UMass allowed against the Eagles on Saturday that gave Boston College a 4-3 win in a game the Minutemen dominated statistically.
“We try to be the aggressive team. But you can’t cross the line from aggressive to reckless. Boston College scored the game-winning goal because we were reckless,” Carvel said. “We try to make the guys aware of where we’re making mistakes because we think we’re doing a lot of good things.”
The margins will be just as thin against the Friars (22-13-2). No. 20 Providence has won its last four games. Three are against Maine and Vermont, the league’s bottom two teams, but the Friars did take down No. 14 UMass Lowell on Feb. 19.
Sophomore Brett Berard is tied for second in Hockey East with 38 points (18 goals). Bobby Trivigno led the league with 43 points. Nick Poisson also has 35 points for Providence (third in the league with 25 assists).
Junior goalie Jaxson Stauber finished fourth in the league in both goals against average (2.07 per game) and save percentage (.923). He has four shutouts this season.
“Every time we play Providence here it’s a 1-0 game. It’s what we expect, a really low-scoring game again,” Carvel said. “We have to be really sharp.”
The Minutemen’s style is already tailor-made for postseason play. They are anchored by their strong defensive corps and fifth-year goaltender Matt Murray.
“We wear teams down,” freshman defenseman Ryan Ufko said.
UMass is 2-1 against Providence this season but lost their most recent meeting, giving up a game-winning goal seconds after tying the game.
“That’s mental stuff. That’s not systems, that’s not physical, it’s mental,” Carvel said “We’ve been focusing in and messaging about how we need to be mentally prepared for this time of year.”
UNMASKED – UMass’ lifting of its mask mandate this week also applies to the Mullins Center, the school announced Thursday. Masks are still encouraged but no longer required at Saturday’s Hockey East quarterfinal against Providence.
Proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test will still be checked before entry.
Kyle Grabowski can be reached at kgrabowski@gazettenet.com. Follow him on Twitter @kylegrbwsk.