Two more home games are on deck for the No. 11 UMass hockey team this week as it’ll welcome Northeastern and Bentley to the Mullins Center starting Friday night.
Two weeks ago, the Minutemen played twice on home ice in a two-game set against Northern Michigan that resulted in two wins. Last Friday, UMass’ first road game of the season was a success as it skated away from Warrior Ice Arena in Boston with a 4-1 victory against Stonehill.
At 3-0-0, the Minutemen will look to continue their winning ways in their first Hockey East conference game versus the Huskies on Friday.
“It doesn’t matter who we’re playing, if it’s league or non-league, we’re trying to get better every game,” UMass head coach Greg Carvel said. “We’re in that phase of the season, October is a real growth phase for your team where you got to correct mistakes pretty quickly and I think we’re doing that, building an identity. I think Northeastern will be a good next step for us our schedule.”
Due to a scheduling quirk, the Minutemen will go up against Northeastern four times this season. Both teams originally had AIC on their schedules, but when the Yellowjackets announced it would be dropping out of Division I , the two squads decided to play one more game against each other, rather than look for another opponent.
With that, junior forward Jack Musa expects this season-long series against the Huskies to be a grind.
“It’s going to be hard,” Musa said. “[We’re] just making sure we’re prepared going into it.”
The Orange Park, Florida native has been UMass’ top point-getter through three games with seven points. Following the Minutemen’s season-opening sweep against NMU, Carvel said he expects No. 9 to be a regular contributor given his skill-set, plus the fact that UMass lost several high-end scorers to pro teams over the offseason.
With three goals and four points already, it would appear Musa is handling the extra responsibility just fine.
“I don’t really focus on it,” Musa said. “I just go out and try and play my game and when I am playing my game, the points come.”
Musa added sophomore transfer Mikey DeAngelo has complimented his play style as the centerman on the Minutemen’s first forward line.
“He’s done all the little things right,” Musa said. “All the small details, you can tell he’s really keying in on making sure he’s doing them, so it’s helping a lot.”
In four career games against Northeastern, Musa has gathered three points.
The Huskies lost their last game — a 2-1 defeat to Army at Matthews Arena — and currently hold a 1-1-0 record this season. Northeastern took down Holy Cross, 6-4, in its first outing of the campaign on Oct. 4.
Four different skaters have slotted three points for the Huskies across their initial contests. Sophomore forward Joe Connor holds the edge in goals (two), while transfer forward Tyler Fukakusa has dished out three assists.
Fukakusa and UMass junior Matthew Wilde were teammates at RIT the prior two seasons.
In goal, Northeastern appears to be running with junior transfer Lawton Zacher. Over two seasons at Brown, Zacher won 20 games and averaged a .913 save percentage with the Bears.
“I look at the schedule and I’m like ‘every week is a little bigger challenge than the weekend before,'” Carvel said. “That’s good because we’ve had seasons here where we’ve opened up against Michigan, Denver, Minnesota State. That’s great too, but with this group, with our offensive group being younger, 11 new players on the team, I think it was a good way for us to work our way into Hockey East play.”
Saturday, the Falcons will fly into Mullins hoping to snatch their first win of the season. Bentley had a couple of tough results in Colorado last weekend, losing to both Colorado College and No. 5 Denver by a combined score of 11-2.
The Minutemen got past Bentley in their first game of the 2024-25 season, 5-4, but the Falcons were one of the 16 teams to qualify for the NCAA Tournament a year ago after winning the Atlantic Hockey America conference title.
One substantial absence from that group for Bentley this season is goalie Connor Hasley, who transferred to Arizona State. In 36 games with the Falcons last year, Hasley had a .925 save percentage and was the AHA Tournament Most Outstanding Player during Bentley’s run to the NCAA Tournament.
UMass’ other forward named Jack — Jack Galanek — would lead the Falcons in points if he was a member of that team. The Minuteman freshman has been involved in every game so far, grabbing assists in each of the their first three games.
The Hopkinton product is second among UMass skaters in freshmen scoring, behind his linemate and former junior teammate Vaclav Nestrasil, and has benefitted from top-six minutes early in his college career.
“My hockey sense, my ability to make plays and my skill,” Galanek said on his strengths. “I’m trying to learn to play harder and be reliable on both sides of the puck. Be a guy that can make an impact, other than making plays.”
While Galanek considers himself a pass-first player, the 6-foot, 177-pounder admitted he’ll gladly shoot the puck when the opportunity presents itself.
“I think it depends on how I’m playing in a given period of time,” Galanek said. “Sometimes, throughout a season, if I’m scoring goals, I’ll be more of a shot-first guy. I think right now, I’ve been more on the side of playmaking so that’s what I’m doing right now. I definitely got to start shooting more pucks to find the back of the net.”
Galanek grabbed 50 points (22 goals, 28 assists) with the Muskegon Lumberjacks of the United States Hockey League last season.
“We had a pretty good feeling of what he’s going to be and he’s going to be a really good college hockey player,” Carvel said. “He might be one of these kids that gets drafted after going through drafts and coming to UMass. I think we’re a really good fit for him. He’ll learn to play our style and become really good at it.
“He is going to be Mr. Everything for us for a number of years,” Carvel continued.
Puck drop for Friday’s game is set for 7 p.m., while Saturday’s bout with Bentley will commence at 7:30 p.m.
