AMHERST — Sophomore defenseman Ivan Chukarov said the moment Greg Carvel met his UMass team for the first time, things were clearly different.
“I feel like the past was in the rearview mirror as soon as Coach walked into that locker room,” Chukarov said. “We’re all geared up and ready for this season.
“What he’s told us so far is really different than what we’re used to. We’re all buying in. We’re doing everything he tells us to do.”
The Carvel era officially begins against Colorado College on Friday at 7 p.m. at the Mullins Center, but he’s been reconstructing the program his way since he was hired in late March.
Carvel sent a message early about what was expected of his players on the ice, in the classroom and in the community.
Dennis Kravchenko was the most notable among a few players that were asked to leave.
“We made some changes to the roster in the spring. We wanted a locker room that was going to be real cohesive and understand what we need to be as a team,” Carvel said. “There was some skill that walked out the door. We needed to start at a certain level and needed to make sure everybody was committed. That’s where we’re at.”
Carvel is still figuring out how the combinations of the remaining veterans and eight freshmen fit together, but he liked their approach.
“We’ve challenged the players and we can see that they’ve responded. They’re doing everything they can to reach the challenges we’ve put out in front of them,” Carvel said. “It’ll definitely takes time to figure out. You think you have an idea, but it’ll probably take until at least Christmas. We’ll have a lot of different combinations and guys in and out of the lineup. I’m not expecting huge steps forward. It’ll be incremental.
“I’ll gauge this season by whether we can raise our standard of play every night,” he continued. “I’m not that worried about wins and losses right now. I’m looking for a team that plays the right way and earns the respect of their opponent every night.”
The players have been eager to follow Carvel’s lead in hopes of putting last year’s 8-24-4 record behind them.
“It’s been great. When he came in he made some changes pretty quick to the roster so we knew he wasn’t messing around,” sophomore Austin Plevy said. “He’s really good at holding guys accountable. He’s real big on commitment and details. For me, last year was frustrating. I knew the potential on this team and this school. With him here and the staff he’s brought and the new faces he’s brought, we’re super excited. It’s been awesome so far.”
Carvel thought the more his team played together in his system, the more it would expect from itself.
“I want them to go into games confident because they know how we want to play and they trust everyone is going to be doing what they’re supposed to do,” he said. “When that happens it builds positive energy.”
Senior Ray Pigozzi said everyone is trying to prove themselves to the new staff in hopes of solidifying their roster spot.
“When everyone knows there’s going to be eight or nine guys sitting in the stands every night, nobody wants to sit out. Everyone wants to play,” said Pigozzi, who’ll likely skate with Plevy and Steven Iacobellis on the first line this weekend. “The amount of guys is going to push guys to do their best so they can be in the lineup every night.”
That begins Friday and Saturday (7 p.m.) against Colorado College.
Like the Minutemen, the Tigers are trying to erase the memories of a rough 2015-16 campaign.
While CC lost leading scorer Hunter Fejes to graduation, its No. 2 and 3 scorers — Luc Gerdes (seven goals, 11 assists) and Trey Bradley (nine goals, seven assists) — returned. Sophomore goalie Jacob Nehama was up and down as a freshman (6-19-0, 3.89 GAA, 89.4 save percentage), but figures to be steadier with a year under his belt. He’ll have to be better as CC allowed 4.03 goals per game last year which was 58th among 60 Division I teams.
The Tigers were picked last in the National College Hockey Conference Preseason Poll.
Matt Vautour can be reached at mvautour@gazettenet.com. Get UMass coverage delivered in your Facebook news feed at www.facebook.com/GazetteUMassCoverage