AMHERST — Greg Carvel isn’t afraid to poke jest at the media asking him questions about his hockey team.
After picking up just one point in a home-and-home series with New Hampshire last weekend, it would have been easy to hit the panic button for No. 7 UMass. The Minutemen are 4-4-1 since returning from winter break with three of those wins being RPI – currently 43rd in Pairwise – and a sweep of Hockey East cellar-dweller Vermont. The other five games have come against teams currently projected to make the NCAA Tournament and UMass has just the one win at Boston College and the tie at New Hampshire to show for it. Yet the Minutemen still lead Hockey East and are still a top-10 team in line to receive a top-two seed in a regional this postseason.
So when one reporter asked Carvel about his team handling this stretch of adversity, Carvel was ready with his retort.
“Adversity?” Carvel asked. “Are we in first place or are we in last place? We’re No. (7) in the country, this is tough adversity. Jesus, the standards have changed around here.”
Indeed, the standards have changed at UMass after winning the Hockey East regular-season crown and advancing to the national championship game last season. The Minutemen are now expected to win most nights, especially when they are at home, and the offense should be flowing far better than it has been the past two weekends. Not gaining at least a split out of a weekend series is considered an abnormality and scoring just once in 125 minutes of hockey is unthinkable.
“Sure, I’d love to win every game,” Carvel said, “but I don’t consider this adversity. Guys played hard, the goalie played well, every game is going to be tight. If we need to win 5-0 for it not to be adversity, it’s going to be adversity the rest of the way.”
But as Carvel pointed out, it wasn’t like the Minutemen were outplayed in either game against the Wildcats, and he felt the compete level and energy were good both nights. Senior defenseman Jake McLaughlin said UMass has to continue to play to its identity and be more committed to the process each day if it wants to continue to have success in the long term.
“We understand in the hockey season, there’s adversity, things aren’t going to be rainbows and sunshine all the time,” McLaughlin said. “We realize we didn’t get the outcomes we wanted this weekend, but we played well. … For us, we just have to stick to what we know, stick to what we do and at this time of the season, you want to double down.”
The one place UMass definitely needs to improve is on the power play, which has dropped to 55th out of 60 teams nationally with just 12 goals in 102 chances (11.8 percent). The man advantage has been a hindrance since the Minutemen returned from their winter break, converting on just three of 43 chances in the last nine games. Carvel has made several adjustments in hopes of sparking some life in the unit, but nothing has yet solved whatever woes the power play.
It’s reached the point now where Carvel is hopeful against all odds that UMass can even be half as effective as it was last year when it had the best power play in the nation.
“I’m maybe naively optimistic that something’s going to click here,” Carvel said. “We have too good of players for it not to be working. We’re working hand-in-hand with the players, communicating, sharing thoughts and ideas. I’m excited because if we ever get the damn thing going, we might not have all this adversity.”
The challenges of this time of the year are fun for Carvel, he said, especially when playing in a league as competitive as Hockey East has been this season. The conference has seven teams inside the top 20 of Pairwise – which will ultimately determine the at-large qualifiers for the NCAA Tournament – and currently is projected to place five teams in the tournament. Just six points separate UMass in first place from Connecticut and Maine, who are tied for the eighth and final seed in the conference playoffs.
UMass (16-8-2, 9-5-2 Hockey East) will try to uphold its place atop the conference Friday night when it hosts No. 5 Boston College at 7 p.m. The Eagles (15-7-0, 9-5-0) are sitting two points behind the Minutemen and are coming off a disappointing weekend of their own after being swept by Maine at home. Still, McLaughlin knows each weekend in Hockey East will be a good learning experience for the young players littered throughout the UMass lineup.
“This league is competitive and each year it’s going to be the same way,” McLaughlin said. “It’s good for them to get the healthy dose right now of Hockey East and what it’s about to give them some experience and let them learn a little bit.”
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.