The No. 13 UMass hockey team returns home to the Mullins Center this weekend for its final non-conference series of the season against No. 20 Cornell.
The Minutemen split their most recent set against Nebraska-Omaha last weekend at Baxter Arena, taking the first game 5-4, before falling, 5-2, in the finale on Saturday, to move to 5-2-0 overall.
Returning to the familiar confines of the Mullins Center will be a trend for UMass for the next several weeks as six of its next eight games are in Amherst, and against a Big Red squad opening its 2025-26 regular-season slate on Friday, the Minutemen want to make Mullins a more difficult place for the opposition to play than it has been so far.
“It wasn’t against Northeastern and barely against Bentley,” UMass head coach Greg Carvel said on whether he views these upcoming home games as an advantage or not. “There’s some frustrations in me that we seem very similar to last year’s team, where the beginning of the year, I’m not really sure what I’m going to get from game-to-game, period-to-period and until we can find that consistency, I don’t know if home ice is an advantage right now.”
The Minutemen are 3-1 on home ice to this point, but they’ve allowed 12 goals in those contests.
There seems to be one fewer unknown, when it comes to UMass’ forward lines, as Justin Kerr has proven to Carvel he can be a lineup regular since making his collegiate debut two weeks ago against the Falcons. Since then, the Grand Rapids, Michigan native has carved out a spot on UMass’ third line and appears to have won a starting job within its bottom-six forward unit, along with fellow freshman Lukas Klecka.
“Justin Kerr and Lukas Klecka are cementing their role in the lineup as third-line players,” Carvel said.
Kerr carries a big frame, standing at 6-foot-5, and that complements his play style as a self-described “hard-to-play-against” forward.
While Kerr hasn’t made his presence felt on offense as much as Klecka, who’s already lit the lamp three times, the former Youngstown Phantom isn’t expected to fill the stat-sheet every night. Rather, being a reliable option in the defensive zone is more of a concern for No. 15 for the Minutemen.
“Stick-on-puck and just using my body,” Kerr said on his progression learning how to defend at the college level. “I’m a big-body forward so you learn how to be physical and shut guys down.”
UMass and Cornell have gone head-to-head in each of the past two seasons in two separate midseason, neutral-site tournaments.
First it was the Adirondack Winter Invitational in Lake Placid, New York in 2023. Last season, both teams faced off in the Desert Hockey Classic in Tempe, Arizona.
The Big Red got the best of both matchups, but Carvel noted the Minutemen were without one notable name in each instance, that will suit up this time around:
Junior goalie Michael Hrabal.
Hrabal was away with the Czechia national junior team the last couple of times UMass played Cornell and despite holding numbers that don’t jump off the page (.907 save percentage, 2.86 goals-against average) through seven starts this season, Carvel doesn’t feel like the numbers tell the whole story with his star netminder.
“He’s been hung out to dry,” Carvel said. “He’s not responsible for back-post goals. The defense are and how many did you see this [past] weekend? A couple. The game-winning goal on Saturday night was a back-post goal. Where was our defenseman who was supposed to be there? He’s out but by the top of the hashmarks. Can’t blame Mike, he’s made a lot of big saves, but he’s also let in a couple goals that he probably thinks he shouldn’t have let in.”
Cornell went 19-11-6 last season while racking up an ECAC championship and a near Frozen Four berth in longtime head coach Mike Schafer’s last season at the helm.
Former Clarkson bench boss Casey Jones is set to coach his first regular-season game for the Big Red on Friday.
Puck drop on Halloween is set for 7 p.m. Saturday’s follow up is scheduled to start at 6 p.m.