{"id":151543,"date":"2025-02-27T06:15:39","date_gmt":"2025-02-27T12:15:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/?p=151543"},"modified":"2025-02-27T06:15:39","modified_gmt":"2025-02-27T12:15:39","slug":"this-week-in-hockey-east-maine-seniors-reflect-on-turnaround-umass-coach-carvel-approaches-milestone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/2025\/02\/27\/this-week-in-hockey-east-maine-seniors-reflect-on-turnaround-umass-coach-carvel-approaches-milestone\/","title":{"rendered":"This Week in Hockey East: Maine seniors reflect on turnaround, UMass coach Carvel approaches milestone"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
UMass plays a home-and-home series this weekend against UMass Lowell (photo: UMass Athletics).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Checking in on a few trends around the league as “Senior Night” season heats up:<\/p>\n

\u2014Senior forward Nolan Renwick was blunt in his assessment of where the Maine hockey program stood during his freshman season of 2021-22.<\/p>\n

“We weren’t very good,” Renwick said. “And our record reflected that.”<\/p>\n

Indeed. Maine finished dead last in Hockey East that season (5-17-2, 7-22-4 overall), but since then, Renwick’s had one of the best seats in the house for the Black Bears’ remarkable turnaround. Maine improved to 15-16-5 overall the following season and 23-12-2 last year, which culminated in Maine’s first NCAA tournament berth in 12 years.<\/p>\n

For Renwick, this weekend’s final homestand at Alfond Arena (vs. Vermont) will be a chance to reflect how far the Black Bears have come in his four seasons with the program.<\/p>\n

“We really pulled this program up from a position where nobody thought we were going to do well,” he said. “Nobody thought we were going to win. Now we’re in a position where we’re contending for Hockey East championships.”<\/p>\n

Entering the weekend, Maine is five points behind league-leading Boston College with an 11-4-5 conference record (19-6-5) overall \u2014 still very much in contention for the No. 1 overall seed in the upcoming Hockey East tournament.<\/p>\n

“I think that adds a lot, makes it a lot more special, to come from where we were to where we are now,” Renwick said. “That even adds to the memory of my four years here.”<\/p>\n

Unlike his departing players, coach Ben Barr is not expected to go anywhere at the end of the season. Yet the weekend will mark the beginning of the end of coach Ben Barr’s fourth season with the club, and with it an opportunity to reflect on Maine’s transformation from a Hockey East doormat to a national title contender. Barr took over the program during the summer of 2021, following the unexpected passing of coach Red Gendron.<\/p>\n

“Without those guys, I don’t think anything changes the last couple of years,” Barr said of the athletes playing their last home regular-season games this weekend. “They’re special kids. (They’ve) turned themselves into good hockey players. It’s not like they were just given all the talent in the world. That’s contagious to everybody else. It’s contagious to the coaches. You know you’re always in the game with those guys as your leaders because they’re going to bring everyone else with them.”<\/p>\n

\u2014When Massachusetts hosts UMass Lowell on Thursday, it will make senior forward Lucas Mercuri the longest-serving Minutemen player under coach Greg Carvel, according to UMass broadcaster Nathan Strauss.<\/p>\n

“He’s a tough guy, a tough kid,” said Carvel about Mercuri, who has missed all of one game in four seasons. “He’s really taken on the identity of a power forward and has really thrived off of it.”<\/p>\n

A win vs. the River Hawks will make Carvel the program’s all-time winningest coach, surpassing Don “Toot” Cahoon, who guided the Minutemen from 2000-12.<\/p>\n

\u2014Like every team, Massachusetts will be fighting this weekend and next for the highest possible seed in the Hockey East tournament. But the No. 5 seed might be the perfect spot for UMass, and for good reason. The top eight seeds are guaranteed at least one home playoff game \u2014 except No. 5, which will earn a bye to the quarterfinals but will be forced to play that game on the road.<\/p>\n

The Minutemen have performed better on the road this season (8-4-2) than at home (7-6-1).<\/p>\n

“(We’re) trying to figure that out,” said Carvel. “I don’t know if it’s a home-ice advantage this year.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Checking in on a few trends around the league as “Senior Night” season heats up: \u2014Senior forward Nolan Renwick was blunt in his assessment of where the Maine hockey program stood during his freshman season of 2021-22. “We weren’t very good,” Renwick said. “And our record reflected that.” Indeed. Maine finished dead last in Hockey […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":126,"featured_media":151544,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[812],"coauthors":[1664],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThis Week in Hockey East: Maine seniors reflect on turnaround, UMass coach Carvel approaches milestone - College Hockey | USCHO.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Checking in on a few trends around the league as "Senior Night" season heats up: \u2014Senior forward Nolan Renwick was blunt in his assessment of where the\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151543\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"This Week in Hockey East: Maine seniors reflect on turnaround, UMass coach Carvel approaches milestone - 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