1

Toot Cahoon

UM returns to ice after 3-week break

By MATT VAUTOUR Staff Writer

The three-week break did not come at a great time for the University of Massachusetts hockey team, which never got to ride the momentum after its 3-1 upset of No. 17 Yale.

The Minutemen will try to develop some new inertia tonight when they face No. 13 Cornell at 7:35 p.m. in the Florida Everblades College Classic in Estero, Fla.

The winner will face the winner of Maine and Clarkson, Friday at 7:30 p.m. The losers will face each other at 4 p.m. in the consolation game. If the teams are tied at the end of regulation and a five minute overtime, they'll be credited with a tie for their record, but a shootout will determine who'll advance to the finals.

UMass coach Toot Cahoon hoped the time off helped his team get healthier, especially senior Danny Hobbs, who's been in and out of the lineup with nagging injuries.

"There was nothing else that was going to get him 100 percent than time away from the rink," Cahoon said. "I don't know if a coach ever feels like they want a lot of time off. But a little bit of rest to mend some wounds is a good thing. ... We just want to get fresh again. Emotionally fresh. I'm hoping we come back with a reasonable mindset. That's the hardest thing to recapture, the competitive spirit."

The Minutemen are undefeated at home and winless on the road. Neutral sites are new territory. Cahoon said playing well away from the Mullins Center would be a good step.

"Winning on the road is something we have to overcome," he said. "Pushing away from it isn't a good thing. We've got to attack it and go right at them."

Cornell is the favorite to win the event on paper. The Big Red (7-3-1) opened the season 1-2, but have gone 6-1-1 in their last eight games. Cornell hasn't allowed a goal in five of its last six games, the lone blemish being a 2-1 overtime loss to Boston University at Madison Square Garden.

Sophomore goalie Andy Iles is among the best between the pipes in all of college hockey. He's played every minute for Cornell this season with a 1.62 goals against average and a .930 save percentage. His GAA is second in the country.

Junior defenseman Nick D'Agostino is Cornell's top scorer with seven goals and six assists, just ahead of freshman forward Brian Ferlin (five goals, seven assists), a Jacksonville, Fla., native playing in his home state.

Clarkson, which is in the also-receiving votes section of the US College Hockey Online Poll, is 9-7-4. Maine has struggled at 6-7-2. Despite being conference rivals, if the Minutemen and Black Bears meet in either the finals or the consolation game, the outcome won't count in the Hockey East standings.

UMASS IN FLORIDA - This is UMass' second trip to the Everblades tournament. In 2002, UMass beat Ohio State then fell to Maine in the final. UMass won the Lightning College Hockey Tournament in Tampa in 2007 when it beat Notre Dame and Colorado College.

Matt Vautour can be reached at mvautour@gazettenet.com. Follow UMass coverage on Twitter at twitter.com/GazetteUMass. Get UMass coverage delivered in your Facebook news feed at http://www.facebook.com/GazetteUMassCoverage.