The No. 18 UMass hockey team experienced a rude awakening after being swept by then-unranked Colorado College last week.
The Minutemen were outscored 8-1 and came out of their opening weekend without a win for the first time since the 2021-22 season.
After dissecting the performances against the Tigers on tape, UMass head coach Greg Carvel isn’t all doom and gloom as his team prepares to host RIT at the Mullins Center this weekend.
“The video, I think, provided me with enough answers to justify what happened on the weekend and we feel comfortable going forward that we’ll be alright,” Carvel said.
Carvel added he felt his expected top players had a sub-par weekend, which factored into the team’s two losses, more so than how any of the new players performed.
Two of those new guys are freshmen goalies Ethan Eskit and Tobias Trejbal. Along with senior Jackson Irving, all three Minutemen puck-stoppers played against Colorado College as Eskit took the loss in the first game despite posting 34 saves, while Trejbal was pulled in the second game following three goals allowed on 19 shots.
Carvel hinted at the possibility of all three seeing action early in the season prior to the road trip, since the starting spot wasn’t locked down after Michael Hrabal’s departure to the NHL, although the 11th-year bench boss didn’t necessarily anticipate all three playing in Colorado.
“I’m not happy about it, but I did get to see all three goalies and I think it did clear things up for me,” Carvel said. “But there’ll be competition again to see who’s playing Friday night. Ethan Eskit did play very well. The game we got more outplayed, he made the saves he was supposed to make and gave us a chance in a game that we didn’t really to have a chance in.”
In front of whichever goalie gets the nod, the Minutemen defense will look to tighten up with RIT coming to town this Friday and Saturday.
Sophomore defenseman, and captain, Coleson Hanrahan, took much of the responsibility for the team’s shortcomings out west.
“I think that’s why we struggled this weekend, I tried to be a little bit more than who I was,” Hanrahan said. “I was kind of freaking out, in my own head, and [Carvel] told me, ‘just be yourself, that’s why they voted you [captain].'”
Hanrahan was named team captain, alongside senior forward Jack Musa, in August as the first sophomore to receive the honor since Carvel arrived in Amherst in 2016.
Hanrahan, a native of Longmeadow, echoed his coach’s sentiments when asked what went wrong during the sweep.
“We got a younger team, I think we learned a lot from this weekend,” Hanrahan said. “But it was on the leadership, the guys wearing letters and the guys [Carvel] expects to lead didn’t.”
RIT, also the Tigers, enter the upcoming set after splitting its opening series against Niagara.
The Tigers’ sophomore class features four of its top seven scorers from last season on a team that went 17-17-2, a seven-win bump from the year prior. Sophomore Zach Wigle tied for the team lead in scoring last season with 25 points and took home Atlantic Hockey America Rookie of the Year honors.
Junior goalie Jakub Krbecek played both games against the Purple Eagles last week and racked up 55 total saves across the two contests.
Familiar foe Matthew Wilde will be in the lineup for the Tigers as the senior forward opted to return to upstate New York following a lackluster four-point junior campaign at UMass. Wilde was a point-per-game player at RIT from 2023-25.
RIT head coach Matt Thomas returns for his second season leading his alma mater.
Puck drop for both games is set for 7:30 p.m.
