WORCESTER – Proving it belongs has become a habit for the UMass hockey team.
After the Minutemen reached the 2019 national championship game and Hobey Baker winner Cale Makar left, they had to prove it wasn’t a one-man show.
“People thought we would drop off,” UMass coach Greg Carvel said.
UMass remained a top-10 team the next season until the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic canceled the entire postseason. It won its first Hockey East title and first national championship the following season last year.
“Just a strong statement of the program and what we’ve been able to do,” Carvel said.
The Minutemen (22-12-2) defended their Hockey East title in overtime at TD Garden. Now it’s time to defend the national championship. UMass opens the NCAA Tournament on Friday against Minnesota at 6 p.m. (ESPNU) at the DCU Center in Worcester.
“Now we’ve got to do it on the national scene here again,” Carvel said. “I kind of like that we’re going in as the underdog. But at the same, we’re the defending champions. We’re going to do everything we can to defend another title.”
UMass is the No. 3 seed in the Northeast Regional appearing in its third straight NCAA Tournament (fourth overall). The Minutemen, the No. 10 team in the country, have reached the last two Frozen Fours by winning two games in their regionals. They haven’t lost a postseason game since the 2019 national championship.
“I’m not focusing on the red carpet. It’s easier to simply think about the game,” UMass senior forward Bobby Trivigno said.
Minnesota will present a different challenge. The Gophers (24-12) are the No. 2 seed and ranked fifth in the country. They won the Big 10 regular season championship and lost in the tournament final.
“They’ve got the roster to back that up. I’m excited for the opportunity. We’ve got good experience on this team in these kind of situations,” Carvel said. “Just an awesome time of the year to play hockey.”
The Minutemen had to earn that experience that brought them back to this point. They started the season with two humbling losses to Minnesota State, a No. 1 seed that beat Harvard 4-3 in the opening round Thursday. Then UMass suffered a rash of injuries to its forward line that put young players in more prominent positions than they were ready for.
Those early lumps have calloused and given the Minutemen depth that they may not otherwise have developed in more stable circumstances. They’ve won five of their past seven games.
“It’s hard when you come back after winning, and everybody’s gunning for you. When it got to the end of the year and things got real serious, our team started to rise. We played some good hard, heavy hockey against two good, hard, heavy teams and it strengthened us to go into the NCAA Tournament,” Carvel said. “I feel our identity really showed through the Hockey East playoffs. We made it really hard for the opposition to get to our net. We’re absolutely going to need that against a high-powered Minnesota team.”
Kyle Grabowski can be reached at kgrabowski@gazettenet.com. Follow him on Twitter @kylegrbwsk.