AMHERST — There is no game in Hockey East that means as little as UMass’ trip to Connecticut on Friday.
The second-ranked Minutemen (26-7-0, 18-5-0 Hockey East) are locked into the top seed in the conference tournament next week. The Huskies (11-20-2, 6-15-2) will finish ninth in the league regardless of the outcome. And the result doesn’t have an effect on any of the other teams around the league scrambling for playoff seeding.
That leaves UMass coach Greg Carvel in an interesting position of finding a way to keep his team engaged on UConn and not look ahead to hosting a quarterfinal series next weekend at the Mullins Center.
“It will be a game where neither team has anything to play for ranking-wise,” Carvel said. “The buttons (to push) were a lot more obvious before Maine when you’re trying to emotionally come back down and stabilize. The buttons this week are just the normal perform to our standard. It’s one game before the playoffs start, so that’s a button you can push; this is preparation for the playoffs, let’s make sure we’re playing (well).”
One of the few ways Friday’s result could impact the Minutemen is in the all-important Pairwise rankings, which help the NCAA tournament committee determining seeding for the postseason. Every win keeps UMass closer to earning the top overall seed in the NCAA Tournament as it battles with St. Cloud State for that distinction.
A loss wouldn’t end the Minutemen’s hopes of earning a No. 1 seed in their regional, but it might impact the overall seeding for the Frozen Four.
Regardless, those implications are too far down the line for Carvel or the Minutemen to be contemplating right now. He’s far more concerned with his team playing consistently to its identity and not straying from their habits for any moment. He said the expectations for the Minutemen aren’t changing in the final game of a successful regular season.
“It’s the same as all year long,” Carvel said. “There’s a standard I know they can play to, if they don’t play to it, they’re going to hear from me. It’s another game, we want to win, Pairwise is important. You want to win every game, we don’t want to put anything in jeopardy and we want to continue the momentum we’ve created here.”
One aspect helping Carvel keep his players’ focus is that consistent message from the coaching staff and how eager the players are for improvement. Even at this stage of the season, there are still plenty of areas the Minutemen need to improve upon as they prepare for the unknown of the postseason.
Carvel was critical of his team’s performance in last week’s win over Merrimack because he thought the effort was too inconsistent and just 10 minutes of decent play won the game. He was hard on the Minutemen’s power play after Saturday’s 6-0 win over Maine because the top unit never established itself in the offensive zone, a major reason UMass was just 1-for-6 on the man advantage.
The yearning to improve has been a constant this season for UMass, and something Carvel said has helped keep the team balanced throughout the season.
“We’re always working to improve,” Carvel said. “I’ve got a real good staff that if I don’t see stuff, they see it and bring it to my attention. We work with a growth mindset around here, nobody has all the answers, you’re always looking for answers. That takes you a long way, we’ll just continue with that.
“What we’re doing today is no different than what we did October 1 when we started. It works, it keeps everybody honest, it keeps everybody motivated and inspired to keep growing, to keep getting better. As you get rewarded for it, it just multiplies the power of it all.”