AMHERST — In so many previous seasons, UMass has approached the start of the Hockey East playoffs with a similar message — a fresh start … a chance to atone for regular season struggles with a playoff run … anything can happen in a short series.
For a struggling team, it’s a good approach, and in more years than not, the Minutemen have struggled.
But as the 2018 postseason arrives the Minutemen don’t want to restart anything. Over the course of the season, they’ve had quite a few strong games sprinkled throughout the schedule. But over the past six games, UMass has played its best hockey in years, going 4-1-1 capped by a 1-0 win over No. 7-ranked Providence.
The young Minutemen have come of age down the stretch, highlighted by strong goalie play by Matt Murray.
The strong finish earned the Minuteman the coveted No. 8 seed in the playoffs. The top five teams get first-round byes. Seeds 6-8 host first-round series. The teams are reseeded for the quarterfinals.
The Minutemen will host No. 9 Vermont, Thursday and Friday at 7 p.m., and if necessary Sunday at 3 p.m. at the Mullins Center.
“We were predicted to finish last and with two or three weeks left in the season, we were in last. We made a nice push at the end of the year and were 4-1-1 down the stretch,” UMass coach Greg Carvel said. “The team is playing very well. We go into the UVM series as a pretty confident group. We’re in a good spot heading into the playoffs.”
Saturday’s upset of Providence was UMass’ second time beating the Friars this season as they won 5-2 on Nov. 9 at Mullins.
“I went back and watched the game where we beat them in the 10th game of the year and thought we were pretty lucky to win that game. On Saturday we won 1-0 and I don’t think that was luck. We deserved that,” Carvel said. “It showed me the tremendous growth of this team. We’re playing our best hockey right now and that’s complemented by our goaltending playing the best it’s played all year. Matt Murray is really starting to play really well.”
It’s UMass’ first home series since 2007, which is the last time the Minutemen won a playoff series. They’re undefeated in the postseason at Mullins with sweeps of Maine in 2004 and Lowell in 2007.
The Minutemen won the season series with Vermont 1-0-1. The teams tied 2-2 on Jan. 12 and then UMass rolled 6-2 the following night. Both games were in Vermont.
“UMass presents a huge challenge for us. We had two hard-fought games with them at Gutterson. They’re a very young but talented team,” Vermont coach Kevin Sneddon said. “They have some elite talent in a couple of their defensemen in particular. They’re a tough team to go against, but we’re looking forward to the challenge.”
Vermont is winless in its last five games (0-3-2), but that stretch came mostly against tough opponents.
After tying New Hampshire, UVM dropped two to No. 12 Northeastern and then had a loss and a tie with Boston University.
Ross Colton is the Catamounts’ most dangerous weapon. His 15 goals (eight on the power play) leads the team and is sixth in Hockey East. UVM is last in the conference with 2.12 goals per game.
“It’s been an issue for us all year finishing our opportunities,” Sneddon said. We need to bare down on our chances.”
Goalie Steffanos Lekkas has seen more pucks than any other Hockey East goalie making 947 saves. (Daniel Tirone of UNH is second with 847.) His goals against average is 11th in the league at 2.79, but his save percentage is fifth at 91.5.
Matt Vautour can be reached at mvautour@gazettenet.com. Get UMass coverage delivered in your Facebook news feed at www.facebook.com/GazetteUMassCoverage