AMHERST — Greg Carvel was optimistic before the season that Jacob Pritchard could make a difference for the UMass offense.
The third-year hockey coach had recruited Pritchard to St. Lawrence and coached him for a season before he took the job in Amherst. Three years later, the two were reunited and Carvel’s optimism was rewarded.
Through 25 games, Pritchard leads second-ranked UMass with 32 points and sparked Carvel to puff his chest out as much as he so desired.
“I was right,” Carvel said with a chuckle last week when reminded of his preseason prediction.
“He’s a really gifted offensive player and he’s been such a huge addition,” Carvel continued. “He’s scored big goals, he’s made big plays, a huge asset that the coaching staff had an idea of how good he could be. There are a lot of grad transfers, but not many grad transfers have this big of an effect on a team, and that’s a credit to Jake.”
Where Pritchard has really made his mark is on the power play, which ranks second in the country with a 30.5 percent success rate. The Macomb, Michigan, native has made his home along the goal line for the UMass power play, and has worked some magic from that spot next to the goal.
His poise with the puck on his stick is something both Carvel and his teammates rave about and has made a difference for the UMass power play unit.
“He’s never in a rush to get rid of the puck,” sophomore John Leonard said. “He waits for things to open up rather than trying to pass through sticks and force pucks through the crease. He finds openings and he gets it to the right guys.”
Pritchard is also versatile with the puck on his stick in those positions. He’s registered 19 power-play points this season, scoring seven times on the man advantage and dishing out 12 assists.
He’s equally as likely to walk the puck to the front of the net and try to jam it in himself as he is to saucer a pass to an open teammate on the other side. It can feel like time slows down when Pritchard is on the puck as he goes through his decision-making process without much pressure from the penalty killers.
“When I get the puck, if I’m open or I have time with the puck, I’ll hang onto it,” Pritchard said. “Typically there’s a guy coming at me, so when I get the puck, I have Leno (Leonard), Chaf (Mitchell Chaffee), I have Marc (Del Gaizo), three guys and probably one of them is going to be open, so I have to find that guy.”
Leonard is the most popular recipient of Pritchard’s passes on the power play, using his position at the blue line as a reset option for the unit. The two of them have formed a remarkable partnership and have had both assists on seven goals this season — six of which came with the Minutemen on the man advantage.
When they aren’t tormenting opponents on the power play, Leonard and Pritchard flank center Philip Lagunov on the second line and continue their connection on the ice. Leonard found Pritchard streaking down the left side 46 seconds into last Friday’s win over Boston University for the game’s first goal, the 11th time this year the two have had an assist on each other’s goals.
“It was always there,” Pritchard said. “At the beginning of the year, pucks weren’t going in for us as much, but the scoring chances were still there. We’re similar players, we both like to shoot the puck, and when there’s similarities in our games, we think alike as well, so there’s some chemistry there.”
Regardless of who is passing him the puck, Pritchard has the hottest stick for the Minutemen (20-5-0, 12-3-0 Hockey East). He has scored in three straight games and six of the last eight for UMass entering Friday’s 7 p.m. showdown with Boston University (10-12-3, 8-6-2 HEA) at the Mullins Center.
Although Pritchard’s offense has lived up to expectations, Carvel said he’s been just as pleased with the impact the transfer has had off the ice for his younger squad.
“A really good teammate, a really good locker room guy, really good energy, he’s the kind of kid you want in your culture,” Carvel said. “We knew we were getting that if nothing else, we were getting a kid that was going to be experienced, older, help us a lot of ways and the offense has been what we hoped for.”
SOLD OUT — For the second time this season, the Mullins Center is sold out for Friday’s game. It is the first time since the arena opened that UMass has had two sellouts in a single season, and tickets are already limited for next Friday’s game against Boston College.
“This is a pretty intimidating place to come in and play when it’s 8,500 and we have a good student turnout and they’re all being active and boisterous,” Carvel said. “It’s rewarding to me because we’ve connected with the student body; we’ve connected with the local western Mass. hockey fans who realize that there’s a real good product on the ice.”
Josh Walfish can be reached at jwalfish@gazettenet.com. Follow him on Twitter @JoshWalfishDHG. Get UMass coverage delivered in your Facebook news feed at www.facebook.com/GazetteUMassCoverage.