The No. 16 UMass hockey team punched their ticket to the TD Garden last Saturday with a 3-1 victory over the Providence Friars in the Hockey East quarterfinals. The win also lifted the Minutemen to No. 12 in the pairwise rankings, providing a safe cushion to earn themselves a bid to the NCAA tournament.
“I’m really happy for this group of kids, they deserve it,” UMass head coach Greg Carvel said. “I think it’s a huge boost for this group, they’ve been good all year. They are great kids, they play hard, I think they’ve deserved more than what they’ve got.”
The Minutemen came out with a sense of urgency in the must-win matchup, quickly scoring two goals in the first five minutes of the opening frame.
Junior forward Ryan Lautenbach opened the scoring, burying a feed from fellow junior forward Lucas Mercuri.
The goal was quickly followed up when junior defenseman Ryan Ufko, who has no shortage of experience scoring big goals this season, blasted home a slap shot from the point that made its way through traffic.
“We haven’t had the best starts all year, so we kinda made that a priority of ours,” Ufko said. “Why not jump on ‘em early.”
After the early start, UMass was content to play a rock-solid defensive game, limiting Providence’s chances.
“That’s the best 60 minutes we’ve put together this year,” Carvel said. “I thought we prepared the team extremely well. We had a game plan and the players executed extremely well.”
After a scoreless second period, sophomore forward Kenny Connors added an insurance goal with 5:38 to go in the third period to put the Minutemen up 3-0. The Friars added a late powerplay tally to bring the game within two, but it was too little too late, as UMass was able to lock down the game.
After missing out on a trip to TD Garden last year, the Minutemen are set to return to the Hockey East semifinals. The Minutemen will take on the nation’s best, as they are set for a matchup with the No. 1 Boston College Eagles on Friday at 4 p.m. Carvel sounded ready for the challenge.
“I’m excited,” Carvel said. “It’s a good opportunity for all the UMass fans to come to Boston and be proud of their school.”
The win was also pivotal for UMass’s hopes for an NCAA tournament bid. Going into the game, the Minutemen were No. 15 in the Pairwise rankings, with Providence just ahead of them at No. 14. The win vaulted UMass to No. 12 in the rankings, with Providence falling to No. 16.
The ranking should put the Minutemen safely into the tournament, even if they fall to Boston College on Friday. Carvel, however, did not sound as confident in that sentiment.
“Tonight is 20 wins,” Carvel said. “That’s a major achievement. Usually enough to get you in the NCAA tournament, but this year it feels like it has to be 21 or 22.”
Whether Carvel was providing semantics in hopes of keeping his team motivated, or he truly believes that to be the case, the Minutemen can avoid having to worry about being selected by beating the best team in the country Friday evening.
