The Friendship Four features a fusion of the familiar and strange.
UMass is playing in the only college hockey tournament based outside the United States for the second time this weekend in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Coach Greg Carvel led the Minutemen during their inaugural trip in his first season in 2016. Assistant Nolan Gluchowski captained Saint Lawrence, Carvel’s alma mater and previous school, in their matchup. Other than that it’s a brand new experience for the Minutemen and will be for the fans in attendance.
“They don’t know hockey at all. In Dublin they were asking questions like ‘do you do that on ice?’ I think this is the only arena in the country. The ice conditions aren’t great here, but they’re learning,” Carvel said. “We’re bringing something new to the country. It’s a great experience because it’s eye-opening for us and it’s eye-opening for the people here.”
The No. 17 Minutemen arrived in Dublin on Monday and toured the Guinness factory and United States Ambassador to Ireland’s residence. They moved on to Belfast, where they practiced at the SSE Arena and visited a peace wall that separates predominantly republican and nationalist Catholic neighborhoods from predominantly loyalist and unionist Protestant neighborhoods.
“We’re just trying to soak it all in, but we came here for a couple hockey games,” UMass senior Jerry Harding said.
The Minutemen will face familiar rival No. 13/14 UMass Lowell at 2 p.m. eastern (NESN-Plus) Friday then either No. 4 Quinnipiac or Dartmouth depending on the results of the opening games. They snapped a five-game losing streak last time out against New Hampshire, so UMass (6-5-1, 2-5 Hockey East) isn’t looking beyond the River Hawks (8-5, 5-3).
“Not really looking past our first opponent. We’ve had a lot of grudge matches with them. They’re going to be hungry, and we need to match it,” Carvel said. “I have a lot of respect for Lowell and the way they compete. We’ve got to bring our best.”
Lowell boasts one of the best defenses in Hockey East. Goalies Henry Welsch (.935) and Gustavs Davis Grigals (.931) both rank in the league’s top five in save percentage, and Welsch is fourth in goals against average (1.76). The River Hawks have allowed the second fewest goals in the conference (22) and have the league’s No. 2 penalty kill (87.5).
The game will also pit Hockey East’s top two face off teams: Lowell at 55.2 percent and UMass at 52.6.
“We have a lot of respect for them, they play the game the right way. They play hard just like us. It’s going to be a close checking game,” Carvel said.
Kyle Grabowski can be reached at kgrabowski@gazettenet.com. Follow him on Twitter @kylegrbwsk.