AMHERST — Greg Carvel was not pleased with the energy his team showed in the early stages of Tuesday’s practice.
The third-year UMass coach got “riled up” and the players responded appropriately and took after their coach’s lead. It would have been easy for the Minutemen to not be as focused after a critical weekend sweep that left them six points ahead of the second-place team in Hockey East with just five games left.
On Thursday, No. 2 UMass (23-6-0, 15-4-0 Hockey East) welcomes UConn to the Mullins Center for a 7 p.m. faceoff. The Huskies (10-18-2, 5-13-2) have just five conference wins this year, sit ninth in the standings and haven’t won a game away from home since December.
But Carvel isn’t willing to let his team let down its guard with the postseason just a few weeks away.
“We’re very much just focused on UConn,” Carvel said. “I’m focused and (I) make sure the team is focused. If we practice lackadaisical then we’ll be lackadaisical, so I’m not concerned about (losing focus). We’ll do everything we can to get the team ready to play Thursday night. We’ve learned enough lessons, we’ve got to be ready to start and we won’t take anybody lightly.”
Those strong starts have been a point of emphasis for Carvel and his staff in recent weeks, especially after a disappointing loss to UMass-Lowell earlier this month. UMass has conceded the first goal in four straight games, but has rallied to win three of those contests — the setback to the River Hawks being the exception.
The Minutemen have tended to improve over the course of the game and become more dominant as the game progresses, which is why Carvel said their start is so important.
“We don’t ever seem to tail off in games, we always seem to get better,” Carvel said. “But sometimes we don’t decide to play until halfway through the game. As long as we decide to play from the drop of the puck, we’ll be fine.”
UMass’ third-period effort in Saturday’s 4-2 win over Boston College was the type of performance Carvel said he’s been waiting for this season. The Minutemen were penalized early in the period and compounded it by giving the Eagles a two-man advantage.
Yet they limited BC to just seven attempts on goal in the final 20 minutes to grind out the victory with smothering defense.
“The effort on the 5-on-3 was excellent,” Carvel said. “Then we just had a great mindset, we worked hard to stay above the puck, I don’t remember what the shots were, but I don’t think we gave up a scoring chance in the third period against a desperate team. It’s the first time this year, I felt like this team can do something special.”
CHUKAROV SIGNS — Senior defenseman Ivan Chukarov has decided to forgo his final month and a half of eligibility and signed a contract with the Worcester Railers of the ECHL on Tuesday. He was a seventh round of the Buffalo Sabres in the 2015 NHL Draft and played four years at UMass, compiling six goals and 19 assists in 128 appearances for the Minutemen.
Chukarov appeared in 25 of the first 27 games of the year before missing this past weekend’s series with Boston College. Freshman Kolby Vegara is expected to fill Chukarov’s role as the Minutemen’s seventh defenseman.
FOURTH LINE SHUFFLE — Carvel has made plenty of adjustments to the Minutemen’s fourth line this month with five different forwards seeing time on that line in the past five games. The only consistent member has been senior Kurt Keats, who was scratched earlier this year before Bobby Kaiser went down with a season-ending injury.
Although Carvel said he’d prefer to settle on a group of three forwards on the fourth line, he said the competition for playing time is the fairest system until that trio separates itself from the rest.
“It’s not really about matching, it’s more about who’s going to compete hard,” Carvel said. “It’s often a compete issue. There’s been games when, I think back to the Lowell game on the road, they were as effective as any line we have in that game. We lost Kaiser for the year, we don’t have a lot of options anymore, so there’s a lot of competition to play and it comes down to which kids we think are going to execute our systems and just compete and make us play to our identity. It changes from game to game and keeps guys honest.”
2020 SCHEDULE — UMass will travel to play Denver on Jan. 3-4, 2020, according to a release from Denver’s athletic department Tuesday. The Minutemen are 0-3-0 all-time against the Pioneers with the last matchup between the schools coming on Dec. 17, 2013. Carvel confirmed on Twitter that Denver will play in Amherst at a to-be-determined date.