Greenfield Recorder – UMass hockey: 9-time national champion Denver awaits Minutemen in NCAA Springfield Regional opener

SPRINGFIELD Greg Carvel had his house to himself last Saturday, the date of the University of Denvers' NCHC title game with Omaha. If Denver were to win, the UMasice hockey head coach and his team would be back in the NCAA tournament. A loss would mean the end of the season for the Minutemen.

His fear and nerves wouldn't let him watch.

“I was just waiting for the text message that I knew I would get somehow,” Carvel said. [Director of Hockey Operations] Steve Trachtenberg texted me: let's go. I said, Denver won? And he said no. So I said, Why are you texting me? So I was watching Toronto and Edmonton play. Denver is a great team, so I thought they would find a way [to win].

And the win that delivered Denver overtook Omaha 4-1 and catapulted UMass into the dance. The Minutemen lost 8-1 in the Hockey East semifinals to Boston College the day before, forcing them to rely on other teams to help them get to the tournament.

It's hard when your destiny is in your own hands and you let it slip away, UMass senior captain Aaron Bohlinger said. We got the second chance we wanted, but it was definitely a pretty stressful day. It ended well, but it was difficult to get there.

On Thursday afternoon at 2 p.m., the same Pioneers team that helped the Minutemen in the tournament will be their opponent in Springfield. The No. 1 scoring team in the country and No. 1 seed for the Springfield Regional, Denver enters the MassMutual Center with a record of 27-9-3 after winning five straight games.

UMass defeated Denver 4-3 in overtime in the Frozen Four semifinals in 2019, and got the best of the Pioneers twice early in last year's regular season. Carvel has done some studying on those games. When his team is playing at the highest level, he likes the Minutemen's chances of advancing.

I went back and looked at parts of past games we played, and I don't think much has changed, Carvel said. They play a very similar game, we play a very similar game. I think it's positive that both teams have had a lot of success with what they do. I don't think changing our game will help us. We have to be the best at what we do, and when we are, we have to put ourselves in a good place to win.

Although UMass is ranked No. 4 among the four teams competing at the MassMutual Center, it still earned the favorable geographic draw of being in Western Massachusetts thanks to being the regional host school.

That should mean a healthy portion of the stands will be littered with Minutemen maroon.

[The fans] It's been great at home for us this year, so to be here just 30 minutes away, it's definitely something special and something we were definitely excited about, UMass junior defenseman Ryan Ufko said.

Nine-time national champion Denver isn't too concerned about the crowd advantage UMass may have. Players have even said that a deafening crowd will only energize the Pioneers. Regardless, the Pioneers are more focused on playing their style of hockey than on external factors.

We don't really care where we have to go or who we have to play against, Denver senior forward Connor Caponi said. Everyone, anytime, anywhere.

Since the two teams last met in an NCAA tournament game, both programs have won national titles (UMass in 2021, Denver in 2022). Pioneers head coach David Carle expects a similar feeling to Thursday's game as 2019, with two successful teams battling to advance on the biggest stage.

We've both won national championships since then, so I think we've come a pretty good way, Carle said. I'm not surprised I saw them again during the tournament. They are well coached, they recruit well and we feel we have great players and great people in our locker room that give us an opportunity to compete as well. So we were looking forward to it [Thursday] afternoon.

A year ago, UMass missed the NCAA tournament with a disappointing 13-17-5 record. The Minutemen have had an impressive turnaround this season and are back in the tournament for the fourth time in five tries.

In recent years, Bohlinger has used a mistake as an example for the young guys on the roster. He told them that there is no guarantee of getting there, and that everyone should take advantage of the opportunity at hand, knowing that another one may not come along in their career.

The rebuilding phase didn't last long for UMass as Carvel brought in several program-changing players. He wanted to return to the culture he had instilled, so he brought in veterans like Samuli Niinisaari, young, talented skaters like Aydar Suniev and a great goaltender in Michael Hrabal.

To have a strong culture, you need a strong identity, Carvel said. That identity got us to the NCAA Tournament, and we felt like we came from there [last year]. A culture is ultimately about the people in it and their composition. We got rid of that, and using the portal you can now make changes quite quickly, and we identified what we needed to do to change. You can see it got us back here pretty quickly. I like the makeup of this team. I like that when we play for our identity, we're a pretty good, very good team.

The Minutemen's most recent match was the aforementioned 8-1 drubbing at the hands of Boston College. Carvel sat with his team to watch film, learn from it, and let them skate out of their system during practice this week.

Carvel, along with the rest of the team, understood that they were the better team for almost half the game. UMass is aware of the full potential if they can play 60 minutes of hockey.

We had two days of practice to wash that down, and had some video sessions, Carvel said. But most of it is messages, and I think that message is. I told these guys: 25 minutes into the game the score was 1-1 and we outscored them 13 to five. It is there for us. Every game is there for us.

It's certainly pretty simple, in Carvel's eyes, when predicting how Thursday will go. Whether UMass wins or not is one thing, but at this point in the year, with a lot on the line, there is no excuse for the Minutemen not to play their best hockey of the season.

The feeling is very different when you make the tournament as one of the 16 teams left. Bring your A-game, or go home.

This is so much fun, Carvel said. Winter is behind us and spring is here. You smell it in the air. If you're still playing, you should be so excited and grateful. I don't understand how you don't bring your best game. This isn't mid-January when you work it out. If we lose, that's it. I'm so happy I could be here again. We have had success in the tournament and I hope it continues.