The No. 13 UMass hockey team will face its stiffest competition to date when No. 6 Maine comes to the Mullins Center for two in the Minutemen’s first Hockey East series of the 2025-26 season this week.
The Black Bears (5-2-1) are the reigning Hockey East tournament champions and already look to be among the cream of the crop of the conference this season too. Maine swept then-No. 5 Boston University at Alfond Arena last weekend in its best showing of the young season.
UMass (6-3-0) has had a case of the splits the last few weeks, with its most recent set against then-No. 20 Cornell resulting in a win and a loss at Mullins Center. Although, Minutemen head coach Greg Carvel had a positive impression after rewatching both games against the Big Red.
“What I really liked this weekend is I just saw our percentages of mistakes go down,” Carvel said. “Our percentages of decisions and battles and checking go up. This was the first weekend where I came away…Cornell is a really good team. You got to have the mindset it’s going to be a low-scoring, grind-game, and our guys did that for 120 minutes.
“I told the team this week, it’s the first time I got excited because I feel us now starting to get momentum moving down the road we want to be on.” Carvel said.
UMass has split each of its previous three weekend series, dating back to its Northeastern-Bentley back-to-back on Oct. 17-18.
Carvel has expressed in the past how difficult sweeps are to attain in today’s college hockey landscape and the Minuteman bench boss detailed his findings in what separates a two-win-weekend from a one-win-weekend, in most cases.
“You either have to have a goalie that steals you a game or your special teams have to win the game for you,” Carvel said. “Teams are too close and the human nature part of it, it’s really hard to win one night, then get your kids wound up to play with the desperation the next night, when the other team loses and they’re very desperate to win.”
UMass’ only sweep so far this season came during its opening weekend pair against Northern Michigan in early October.
Faceoffs are an area of concern for Carvel, though, as the Minutemen remain below 50% in the dot through nine games. UMass is currently winning 47.1% of its draws, which is among the bottom-20 teams in the nation.
“It’s the worst part of our game,” Carvel said. “It’s an issue. We knew it was going to be a drop off, it’s been more extreme. The one thing we have found is we moved Justin Kerr into the lineup and he’s really strong.”
The Grand Rapids, Michigan native has won 65% of faceoffs in five games played.
Maine is right around the middle of pack , in terms of faceoffs-won, sitting at 51.1% as a team, but the Black Bears’ offense makes up for their pedestrian numbers inside the circles.
Maine has put 33 pucks into the opposing net, which is tied for sixth-most in the nation.
Justin Poirier, one of a handful QMJHL transplants on this season’s Black Bears roster, paces Maine in points with eight goals and 13 points. Five current Black Bears played in the QMJHL last season, while Jaden Lipinski (six points) spent most of the past four seasons with the Vancouver Giants of the WHL.
Several current Maine players also tend to shine when playing the Minutemen as Brandon Holt, Josh Nadeau, Thomas Freel and Frank Djurasevic all have four career points against UMass.
This weekend’s matchup will also feature two of the expected top goalies in Hockey East in Michael Hrabal (Minutemen) and Albin Boija (Black Bears), whose numbers suggest each have more to give. Through one month of the regular season Hrabal has a .911 save-percentage, while Boija currently holds a .895 save-percentage.
“I think this group has got really good potential,” Carvel said. “If Michael Hrabal is playing at his best and our defense as a group are playing well and all these forwards start learning to play harder, I can see where we can get to and that part excites me.”
Puck drop for the series opener on Thursday is set for 7 p.m.