The 2024–25 UMass Minutemen ice hockey season was the 93rd season of play for the program, the 32nd at the Division I level, and 31st in Hockey East. The Minutemen represented the University of Massachusetts Amherst in the 2024–25 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey season, played their home games at Mullins Center and were coached by Greg Carvel, in his 9th season.
Season Massachusetts entered the season with a significant number of changes to the lineup with the biggest losses coming on the blueline. The departure of six defensemen, including the pair that finished in the top three of team scoring, would be difficult to replace. While the Minutemen still had a few defenders left on the team, they brought in six new faces, four of which were freshmen, and began rebuilding their defensive corps. The rest of the team saw minor alterations with only a handful of depth forwards and the team's backup netminder leave. As such, it would be incumbent on those departments to hold up while the defense not only learned the system of play but built up a rapport amongst themselves and the rest of the squad.
The early part of the season didn't go so well for UMass. The team was met with inconsistency in goal from Michael Hrabal who seemed almost incapable of putting two good games together. The offense was much more reliable, managing to find the net regularaly thanks largely to the efforts of two players. Aydar Suniev progressed well in his sophomore season and was rounding into a form as a big-time scorer. However, the Minutemen received their biggest boost from Cole O'Hara. After two unimpressive campaigns, the Nashville Predators draft pick exploded out of the gate, scoring in each of the team's first eight games. He remained a consistent threat for the duration of the year and would not only lead UMass in scoring by a wide margin but would finish in the top 10 scorers for the entire country.
After riding through the rough patch in the first six weeks of the season, Hrabal was benched for a game against Providence in November. While the team lost, they did receive a solid performance from backup Jackson Irving. The move seemed to focus Hrabel, who started the following match and followed that with a string of much more consistent play. The up and down stretch to start the season caused the team to drop out of the national polls by the end of the first half of their schedule, however, because Hockey East was the top-ranked conference in the country, Massachusetts would have plenty of opportunities to earn their way back to the NCAA tournament.
Hrabal left the team during the winter break to take part in the World Junior Championships, which gave Irving a chance to show what he could do. The Minutemen ended up finishing third in the Desert Hockey Classic after surrendering a lead in the third period to Cornell. Irving responded with a shutout the following night but his overall performance didn't force the team to rethink their goaltending situation and Hrabal remained the starter for the remainder of the season. That choice ended up paying off for the Minutemen as Hrabal was the picture of consistency for the rest of the regular season. Over the final 17 games, only once did UMass not win a game where they scored 3 goals. With O'Hara and Suniev still firing on all cylinders, the Minutemen's offense was able to take advantage of the solid goaltending and win the vast majority of their games. Massachusetts went 10–4–3 which included victories over some of the highest-ranked teams in the country. As the wins continued to pile up, UMass climbed their way back into the playoff picture, returning to the polls by late January and then climbing into the top-16 of the PairWise rankings. UMass was so good in the back half of the year they even managed to get into the top-10, which put them into a guaranteed at-large position heading into the postseason.
Playoffs While UMass had been dominant in the second half of the year, their poor first half caused the team to finish 6th in the conference standings and forced them to begin their title hunt in the opening round of the conference tournament. Vermont arrived for the final UMass home game of the year and fought hard against the Minutemen. Though Massachusetts was able to get the first two goals of the game, the Catamounts responded quickly with one of their own. For the final 45 minutes of the match, Vermont attacked the UMass cage, desperately searching for the tying goal, but Hrabal turned aside everything sent his way. The 2–1 victory sent Massachusetts into the quarterfinals, where they encountered stiffer competition in the form of #9 Boston University. The Terriers opened the scoring early and it took nearly a period before Jack Musa could tie the game. After getting the second lead of the night, BU carried their advantage deep into the third. UMass, now fighting their own desperate battle, ramped up their offensive game in the third, firing more shots on goal than they had in the first two periods combined. The near-constant pressure worked when Suniev tied the match, but the offense was unable to find a follow-up in the remaining 9 minutes and the match headed into overtime. The pace was fast in the extra session, with UMass getting a pair of glorious chances. Unfortunately, BU was able to capitalize on a 2-on-1 less than 3 minutes in and knocked the Minutemen out of the tournament.
While the loss did cause UMass to drop in the PairWise, they only slipped to 11th, meaning that it would take upsets in four separate conference tournament for them to miss out on the postseason. However, a week later that point was rendered moot when the results of the championship weekend allowed UMass to rise back up into the #10 position, giving the club not only an at-large bid but a #3 seed as well. Unfortunately for the Minutemen, the team found itself placed in the Fargo Regional, forcing it to participate in the bracket furthest away from its campus and giving the other three teams a distinct advantage in the partisanship of the crowd. With their opponent being Minnesota for the opening match, the Minutemen played what was essentially a road game and the Gophers looked to take full advantage. Though Minnesota opened the scoring, Larry Keenan was able to respond with a tying goal just 20 seconds later. As they had against BU, the offense sputtered for the first two periods and allowed two additional Minnesota goals to go unanswered. Down by a pair entering the third, the Minutemen once against tried to awaken their offense in the final frame. UMass started taking charge with a massive offensive effort as well as the referees swallowing their whistles and Suniev broke through past the 7-minte mark of the period. Less than 2 minutes later, Daniel Jenčko took advantage of an equipment malfunction that forced Minnesota to swap goaltenders and tied the score off of a deflection. Minnesota tried to get its offense back in gear, now needing another goal to win, but Massachusetts continued to control the balance of play. With just under 5 minutes to play, Francesco Dell'Elce tried to find Musa down low but his pass was blocked, instead, a Minnesota player deflected the puck directly into his own net, giving the Minutemen their first lead of the night. However, the Gophers were able to tie the score less than 80 seconds later, forcing the two to settle the game in overtime. Both teams tied to end the game early with scoring chances coming fast and furious. After turning the puck over at center ice, Dans Ločmelis found Suniev back-door for a tap-in to win the game.
Two days later, UMass was set to face Western Michigan and they got off to a good start when Ločmelis opened the scoring less than 9 minutes into the match. Unfortunately for the Minutmen, that was the only goal they would manage for the evening. The team struggled mightily to solve the Broncos' netminder and failed every time over the final 50 minutes of the match. To make matters worse, Suniev was called for a major penalty late in the second period and Western wasted no time taking advantage. After tying the game just 22 seconds into the power play, the Broncos took the lead in the final minute of the man-advantage. UMass was even gifted their own 5-minute power play shortly afterwards but they failed and finished the game with no goals on 9 full minutes of power play time.
Departures Aaron Bohlinger Defenseman Graduate transfer to Quinnipiac Cole Brady Goaltender Graduation (retired) Eric DeDobbelaer Goaltender Transferred to Robert Morris Liam Gorman Forward Graduation (signed with Allen Americans) Taylor Makar Forward Transferred to Maine Elliott McDermott Defenseman Graduate transfer to Rensselaer Scott Morrow Defenseman Signed professional contract (Carolina Hurricanes) Samuli Niinisaari Defenseman Graduation (signed with SaiPa) Christian Sanda Forward Graduation (retired) Kazimier Sobieski Defenseman Left mid-season; returned to juniors (Youngstown Phantoms) Sebastian Törnqvist Defenseman Transferred to Vermont Ryan Ufko Defenseman Signed professional contract (Nashville Predators) Lucas Vanroboys Forward Graduation (signed with San Jose Barracuda)
Recruiting Francesco Dell'Elce Defenseman 19 King City, ON James Duerr Forward 20 Chicago, IL Cam Dunn Forward 20 Holland, MI Daniel Jenčko Forward 19 Humenné, SVK Larry Keenan Defenseman 19 Midhurst, ON; selected 117th overall in 2023 Charlie Lieberman Defenseman 20 Naperville, IL Finn Loftus Defenseman 20 Blaine, MN Joey Musa Forward 24 Orange Park, FL; transfer from Dartmouth James Norton Goaltender 21 Scarborough, ON Lucas Ölvestad Defenseman 22 Tampa, FL; transfer from Denver Kazimier Sobieski Defenseman 20 Deerfield, MA
Roster As of September 17, 2024.
Standings
Schedule and results
!colspan=12 style=";" | Regular Season
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Scoring statistics RW 40 22 29 51 14 LW/RW 35 20 18 38 41 F 40 18 17 35 4 C 40 8 25 33 8 C/RW 40 10 21 31 24 C 40 10 19 29 6 D 40 7 17 24 12 LW/RW 40 6 15 21 19 D 38 4 16 20 22 C/LW 28 6 11 17 10 D 40 5 9 14 16 D 40 4 7 11 16 D 40 3 7 10 10 C 21 3 4 7 4 D 34 0 6 6 8 RW 31 2 3 5 6 C 37 2 2 4 11 RW 27 2 1 3 23 F 33 1 2 3 6 F 30 0 3 3 10 G 5 0 1 1 0 D 31 0 1 1 4 G 36 0 0 0 0 D 5 0 0 0 2 C 6 0 0 0 0 Total 108 185 293 331
Goaltending statistics 7 280:40 2 2 0 7 116 1 .943 1.50 35 2070:33 19 12 5 82 1000 2 .924 2.38 Empty Net - 25:39 - - - 6 - - - - Total 40 2376:52 21 14 5 95 1116 3 .917 2.40
Rankings
PollWeekPre 1 23456789101112131415161718192021222324252627 (Final) USCHO.com141415151718RV20RVRVRVRV–RVRVRVRV201816161716141413–10 USA Hockey14141715171720RVRVRVRVRV–RVRVRVRV2018161614141414111010 Note: USCHO did not release a poll in week 12 or 26.Note: USA Hockey did not release a poll in week 12.
Awards and honors Cole O'Hara AHCA All-American East First Team Cole O'Hara All-Hockey East First Team Michael Hrabal All-Hockey East Third Team Francesco Dell'Elce Hockey East All-Rookie Team
2025 NHL entry draft
1 25 † Chicago Blackhawks 3 77 Colorado Avalanche 3 82 † Montreal Canadiens † incoming freshman
References