UMass proves if you’re all-in, you can win titles
When the UMass players leaped over the boards at the end of their 5-0 rout of St. Cloud at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh, the Minutemen not only celebrated the program’s first national championship.
The commonwealth’s largest public university also could celebrate the culmination of its move to Hockey East for the 1994-95 season. A move that brought rocky times and some serious lows, and a move that reached the pinnacle of college hockey Saturday night with a dominant performance.
“I thought all along they were the best team in our league,” UConn coach Mike Cavanaugh said. “I texted Greg Carvel that. BC had an outstanding goalie (Spencer Knight), but I thought they were deeper than BC. They didn’t have a weakness.”
“A well-coached team, but in the end they got off the bus with the better players,” Quinnipiac coach Rand Pecknold said. “That D corps — Zac Jones, Matthew Kessel, Anthony Del Gaizo — is just stacked. They are NHL defensemen.”
Bobby Trivigno, whom Cavanaugh called an elite player, led the UMass offense. Filip Lindberg was second-team Hockey East behind Knight, but he performed as well as any goalie in the nation when it mattered most.
“They have done a phenomenal job of recruiting,” Pecknold said. “Ben Barr is one of the best assistants in college hockey. Jared DeMichiel does a good job, too. Carvy is a really good coach. Creating a good culture, an identity, coaching is important. There’s certainly Xs and Os. In the end, you need players. They have excellent players.
That’s why they just won the national championship.”
The Minutemen became the first state school from Hockey East to win the national title other than Maine (1993 and ’99). With UConn scheduled to put a shovel to dirt for its new campus hockey facility at a May 22 groundbreaking, the message is yes, it can be done. As late as 2016-17, Carvel’s first year, UMass was 2-19-1 in Hockey East and 5-29-2.
“I don’t feel any pressure because UMass won,” Cavanaugh said. “I think it’s great. Greg did a great job. I think our program is trending to do the same thing. We’re only seven years in Hockey East and they’re 27. I’m really happy for them and our league.”
UConn finished 10-11-2 with all games within a league continually juggling the schedule because of COVID. The Huskies split four meetings with BC, ranked among the best teams all season; lost twice at UMass and won in a shootout at empty Freitas Forum. The seven games represented 30 percent of their schedule.
“I think what a travesty it was that we didn’t get into the NCAA Tournament,” Cavanaugh said. “We’re the fourth-place team in Hockey East and we didn’t get in with a league that strong. I think it’s wrong. I’m not taking anything away from Bemidji State, but I think the fourth-place team in the WCHA isn’t as strong as the fourth-place team in Hockey East. And we had the toughest schedule in the league.
“UConn made a commitment to go to Hockey East and fund the program. The one thing that was lacking was, let’s face it, a Division I facility, which we are going to get. We fared pretty well in the league without one. The last four years, we finished fifth, ninth when we had 12 freshmen, fifth and fourth in the league.”
Hockey East, formed in 1984, has six public schools with Vermont, New Hampshire, UMass Lowell, Maine (America East), UMass (Atlantic 10), UConn (Big East) in three primary conferences. There are five privates. Boston College (ACC) in a Power 5 league and Providence (Big East), BU (Patriot League), Northeastern (CAA) and Merrimack (NEC) at various levels of Division I.
Obviously, the Boston schools have tradition. Yet I was curious to hear what Pecknold — who twice has been to the national finals with a private university in the ECAC — and Cavanaugh see as the differences in the private and public New England hockey colleges.
“The big difference — and the coaching staff has to take advantage of it — is the cost,” Pecknold said.
“You can get a really good education at UMass, UConn and the others for half the cost of going to the private schools,” Cavanaugh said.
This isn’t basketball and football where full scholarships blanket a program. Hockey allows 18 scholarships for generally 27, 28 players.
“You can’t give 18 fulls and win,” Pecknold said. “You have halves, 75 percent maybe, get walk-ons. If I offer a kid a half, it still cost $35,000 a year. Depending on the state school, it might be $15,000.”
With tuition, room, meals, et al., Quinnipiac runs about $70,000 and UConn around $31,000 for in-state and $53,000 out-ofstate.
Financial aid through need or academic achievement, use of a program where New England students can attend other New England state schools at a reduced cost, etc. — this is where teams must be creative.
Both agree the biggest difference isn’t the biggest factor.
“The main story is it’s not a matter of whether you are a state school or a private school,” Cavanaugh said. “You’ve got to make a commitment. You saw Yale win it in 2013. They made a commitment to that program with (the $23 million renovation of Ingalls Rink). Keith Allain did an awesome job.”
Maine went to the finals five times between 1993 and 2004. Dick Umile coached New Hampshire to the finals in 1999 and 2003. UMass Lowell has had teams that could have won it. Pecknold pointed out he had been to 10 Frozen Fours as an assistant with BC, and there can be an element of luck, the bounce of a puck. As great as UMass was Saturday, the Minutemen needed overtime to eliminate Minnesota Duluth in the semis.
Make no mistake. Resurrecting a dormant program in 1993, UMass suffered. It was 3-21-0 and 6-28-2 overall in its first Hockey East season in 1994-95. Along the way there were two Hockey East seasons of 3-19-2 and one of 4-13-3. Yet you saw it coming. UMass got to the finals in 2019 and defenseman Cale Makar won the Hobey Baker.
“I wasn’t here when Geno Auriemma recruited Rebecca Lobo, but when UMass got Cale Makar (actually recruited by the previous coaching staff ), it got a generational player. That changes things,” Cavanaugh said.
“And UMass started the program the right way. They have a practice rink. They have a beautiful facility to recruit to. Penn State did the same thing. One of the things about UConn I’m really excited about, and (AD) David Benedict has been a linchpin in this, we’re having a groundbreaking. The new facility is going to be a gamechanger for us for sure.”
We’re not going to belabor how Mullins Rink at UMass was built for hockey and basketball and Gampel Pavilion only for hoops. We’re not going belabor the number of seats and how long it has taken to get the UConn campus hockey arena going. It’s going. The XL Center will continue to host the biggest games. Yet without an adequate campus facility, it’s so difficult to recruit top-notch North American players.
“The advantage that UMass has over a lot of schools — and I give (athletic director) Ryan Bamford a lot of credit,” Pecknold said, “they are all-in. Everything they do is firstclass. They just did a couple million-dollar renovation with the rink. That helps with recruiting. Ryan had a vision. He runs that program with the intent to win the national championship. I think there’s a lot of programs out there in Division I hockey that don’t do that.”
And that can be foreboding.
“The whole landscape of college hockey has changed in the last month,” Pecknold said. “It has been transforming with the Big Ten and leagues, little by little. But now with everyone getting a fifth year, there are like 250, 260 kids in the transfer portal (for 61 D1 hockey teams). That’s crazy.”
Bowling Green and UMass Lowell have been among the hardest-hit.
With the NCAA giving an extra year of eligibility because of COVID, graduate transfers abound. The NCAA also is expected to soon allow football, men’s and women’s basketball, baseball and men’s hockey players a one-time transfer waiver to be able to play immediately.
Quinnipiac has lost a few players who hadn’t seen a lot of ice time, but has made some big additions: Dylan St. Cyr, who had been Notre Dame’s starting goalie; Griffin Mendel, a 6-4 defenseman from Denver; and Tony Stillwell, Brown’s captain for a season that the Ivy League canceled.
“There are haves and have-nots in college hockey,” Pecknold said. “I think the gap is going to be even bigger. There’s a lot more talent jumping. Some of the big schools, the bluebloods, they’re literally recruiting off other teams’ rosters.
“The message is you better treat your kids well. You better make sure you have food after practice for them. Sneakers, hats, Tshirts up to the allowable limits. The kids know. They have buddies at other schools. We’re fortunate at Quinnipiac, we’re all-in, but if you’re not all-in, you are in trouble.”