There’ll be no gentle acclimation period for new UMass hockey player Brett Boeing.
The sophomore, who officially became a Minuteman on Wednesday, will pull on his No. 20 jersey Friday night and will likely see a shift on the top two lines against Alabama-Huntsville at 5 p.m. in the Mariucci Classic in Minneapolis.
Boeing is a 5-foot-8, 187-pound forward from Barrington, Illinois, who began his college career last year at Michigan Tech. He had a goal and five assists in 11 games but left the program after the first semester.
He returned to his junior team, the Dubuque Fighting Saints of the USHL, for the remainder of the 2015-16 season. He had 25 points (seven goals, 18 assists) in 31 games. He practiced with them for the first half of this season before heading to Amherst.
In three seasons in Dubuque he had 107 points (47 goals, 60 assists) in 170 games.
“We think he can contribute quickly. We’re a little concerned about his conditioning. He was out practicing with Dubuque, but you just can’t get into game shape (in practice). But we’ve had two days of practice and he’s keeping up,” UMass coach Greg Carvel said. “He’ll play on one of the top two lines right away. He’s not a big guy, but he’s competitive. He’s got a bit of a goal scoring touch, we’re hoping. He’s shown that in the past.
“He’s got good hockey sense. He plays the game right and has a good understanding of how the game should be played,” Carvel continued. “We’re going to give him opportunities right away on special teams and on the top two lines.”
The coach hoped that Boeing’s arrival along with the return of previously injured forwards Kurt Keats and Ryan Badger would help improve UMass’ scoring.
“Offensively we’re a challenged team. We’ll have him and now we’ll have Keats and Badger back,” Carvel said. “We’re hoping those guys will give us some grit and score some ugly goals for us.”
The Minutemen (4-12-2) will either play Mercyhurst or No. 11-ranked Minnesota in either the consolation game (5 p.m.) or championship (8 p.m.) Saturday.
The Minutemen are trying to snap a five-game losing streak.
Carvel thought playing three games in the week before finals hadn’t been good for his young squad. He thought the almost two weeks off had given his team a new spark.
“It definitely has. In two days of practice you can see it. I don’t blame the guys. When I took over the team we still needed three games. Unfortunately we had to fill those three games with the last three games we played,” he said. “We should have been done playing after the UConn game (Dec. 9). Most schools were done. It was a tough week and a long semester that was physically and psychologically demanding for these guys and I think we just ran out of gas. I can’t blame the kids and I feel badly that they got put in that situation.”
He thought the time together without classes during winter break would be good for his team.
“It’s nice or guys to just focus on being hockey players for a couple of weeks,” he said. “As a group we can continue to jell together as a team.”
Matt Vautour can be reached at mvautour@gazettenet.com. Get UMass coverage delivered in your Facebook news feed at www.facebook.com/GazetteUMassCoverage