The stakes will be raised at the Mullins Center on Friday, as the UMass hockey team opens Hockey East play against UConn. 

After five non-conference games, the Minutemen — ranked No. 22 in PairWise — have proven they can put the puck in the net with 21 goals. Their average of 4.2 tallies per game ranks eighth in the country. 

UMass’ 2.6 goals per game allowed ranks 32nd however, and the No. 15 Huskies will put that to the test, as UConn has put 18 shots in the back of the net through five games. 

Coming off a split against Sacred Heart last weekend, UMass coach Greg Carvel said he understands the competition will be ratcheted up now that Hockey East opponents are on the horizon. 

“Nothing changes," Carvel said. “There’s a certain way we play. We don’t want to give up goals and we want to score goals. Whether we score three or six, we’re trying to score 10 goals and give up no goals. My coaching style doesn’t change. Maybe some kinks to the system. We’ve scored some goals but to be honest, we’ve played four of our five games against Atlantic Conference teams. No disrespect because we just got beat by one but the competition is going to be higher now that we’re going into Hockey East. I’m more concerned about the defensive side of the game. I do feel confident that we’ll score enough goals but I’d rather be the top defensive team in the league than the top offensive team in the league.”

It was a mixed bag against the Pioneers last weekend, as the Minutemen (3-2) fell behind 4-1 in Friday’s home opener and despite a late rally, couldn’t get the game-tying goal in, falling 4-3. 

On Saturday in Fairfield, UMass led 2-1 going into the third period when the offense caught fire and scored four goals to run away with a 6-1 victory to head into Hockey East action on the right foot. 

For Carvel, the difference in the two games was goaltending. The Minutemen led in the shot department in Friday’s loss but Sacred Heart goalie Cullen DeYoung stopped 33 of the 36 shots he faced while UMass’ Michael Hrabel had 16 saves on 20 shots. 

The roles reversed on Saturday, as Hrabel made 20 saves on 21 shots while DeYoung only stopped 14 of the 20 shots he saw. 

“Friday night we had the [edge in] chances of 22-7,” Carvel said. “I’ll take that every night, every game for the rest of my life. We just need a goaltender to make saves. Their goaltender stood on his head. It was just one of those where our goalie was a little off and their goalie was on. It was just enough posts, enough highlight saves to win the game. The next night our goalie was better than their goalie. The other goalie was off, he’d used up all his miracles and we finally found a way to score some goals in the third period. But, we weren’t very good for two periods. I thought goaltending was the biggest determinant of both games.” 

UConn (3-2) opened its season with a pair of wins over Colgate before splitting two games with Holy Cross. The Huskies opened their Hockey East slate last Friday, falling to Boston University, 4-2.

Forward Jake Percival and Jake Richard are off to strong starts for UConn, each scoring four goals and dishing two assists on the season. In net, Tyler Muszelik has surrendered just nine goals in four games.

With a strong forecheck, Carvel’s message to his team was a simple one.

“Don’t go into corners and get the puck out of the corner,” Carvel said.

While Carvel tries to figure out his third defensive pairing, he made changes to the top four he had been using on Saturday.

Veterans Owen Murray and Lucas Olvestad had been paired up for the first four games while freshmen Larry Keenan and Francesco Dell’Elce had stuck together on the second pairing, but in the second game against Sacred Heart, Carvel decided to see what it looked like with Keenan and Murray playing together and how Olvestad and Dell’Elce played together.

After giving up one goal, expect those pairings to stay on Friday against the Huskies.

“We liked getting Larry Keenan on his strong side,” Carvel said. “We felt like splitting up the experience of Murray and Olvestad with the younger kids would be better. Dell’Elce had a great game. To me, he’s been probably the most overachieving player for us to this point of the newcomers. We’ll stick with that foursome, we’re still trying to figure out the five six combination.”