Two of the hottest teams in Hockey East will square off in Vermont in the UMass hockey team’s set against the Catamounts at Gutterson Fieldhouse this Friday and Saturday.
The Minutemen (12-10-0) enter the series winners of three straight, with their first conference sweep over Merrimack last weekend included in that stretch.
Vermont (9-12-0), which managed just five wins before the semester break, has racked up four victories in five games since the start of the new year. Toss in the fact that Gutterson acted as UMass’ house of horrors during last season’s series (Minutemen mustered one of six points) and the upcoming showdown offers plenty of intrigue.
“I remember the games at UVM and I thought we played particularly well, we just couldn’t score and didn’t get saves,” Minutemen head coach Greg Carvel said.
The Catamounts were a thorn in UMass goalie Michael Hrabal’s side in the road series last season in November as Hrabal allowed three goals on 34 shots in the first game (a 3-3 tie), but was yanked from the cage in the second game after giving up two goals on six shots (a 4-0 loss).
More than a year later, Hrabal is largely the reason for the Minutemen’s recent surge. The junior netminder has stacked up 109 saves in the four games since returning from break, improving his save percentage to .915–fifth-best among Hockey East goalies.
“We’ve seen this continuously with Michael, he gets a little comfortable, he gets a little loose,” Carvel said. “This year, throw an injury into it, but we’ve also seen him for three years in the row in the second half, be one of the top goalies in the country. As much as the first half of the year wasn’t what we wanted, the second half is starting out the right way.”
Still, UVM has pocketed some impressive wins of late with a sweep against ranked Northeastern earlier this month the cream of the crop. The Catamounts’ second-half play has propelled them to sixth place in the Hockey East standings (18 points).
“That’s what Vermont does, they play a good structure, good discipline, they keep games close,” Carvel said. “They just play the game the right way and we got to do the same.”
UMass leaped up to eighth place in Hockey East with 15 points.
Freshman Jonah Aegerter leads the Catamounts with six goals, while Colin Kessler (13 assists) is their top point-getter with 15.
Goals were few in far between for UVM during the first half of the season as it netted three goals in a game just once throughout its opening 15 contests. The Catamounts have improved their output to since then, but still have the fourth fewest goals-scored totals (40) in all of Division I hockey.
The Minutemen are a below average goalscoring team as well (59 total), but they’ve started to get more contributions from their backend. Notably, senior defenseman Lucas Olvestad potted the game-winning goal in UMass’ 3-1 victory against the Warriors last Saturday at the Mullins Center and chipped in a couple of assists.
“I think it could be more, we’ve got good players back there,” Carvel said regarding the production from his blueliners. “I’m a little surprised Landon [Nycz] doesn’t have more points for as much as he creates offensively. [Francesco Dell’Elce’s] numbers are probably pretty similar to last year. I think Larry Keenan is capable of putting better numbers up. Then Olvestad gives you that odd goal when you need it, like he did.
“It’s a team-wide thing, we need more offense and if our defense can help contribute, it’s going to help our forwards,” Carvel continued. “I think it’s trending that way.”
Dell’Elce has deposited 15 points as the Minutemen’s most productive defensemen to this point.
Puck drop for both games in the Green Mountain State is scheduled for 7 p.m.