The UMass men’s hockey team is making its second straight trip to the NCAA championship game, where it will face St. Cloud State Saturday night at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh.
Here’s what you need to know as the Minutemen look to bring the trophy back to Amherst.
How to tune in
The game will be televised on ESPN at 7 p.m. If you have a cable login, you can stream the game on any platform with access to ESPN.
How they got here
UMass: After going 13-5-4 during the regular season, UMass rolled through the Hockey East tournament, capturing its first conference tournament title with a 1-0 win over UMass Lowell in the championship game. That earned the Minutemen a No. 2 seed in the Bridgeport regional, where they convincingly defeated Lake Superior State and then shut out Bemidji State to advance to the Frozen Four. They punched their ticket to the title game with a thrilling 3-2 overtime win over two-time defending champion Minnesota Duluth.
St. Cloud State: After a 15-9 regular season and a second-place finish in the National Collegiate Hockey Conference, St. Cloud advanced to the championship game of the conference tournament before losing to North Dakota. Hockey East fans became familiar with the Huskies after they plowed through the Albany regional as the No. 2 seed, taking out Boston University, 6-2 and following that up with a 4-1 win over Boston College to advance to the Frozen Four. A 5-4 win over Minnesota State put them in Saturday’s final.
Advertisement
Both teams have faced some adversity
Before leaving for Pittsburgh, the Minutemen found out they would be without four players for their semifinal on Thursday because of COVID-19 contact tracing protocols and school policies. Among those who couldn’t play were forward Carson Gicewicz, who leads the Minutemen with 17 goals, and goalie Filip Lindberg, who is 9-1-4 and has a .946 save percentage and a 1.32 goals-against average. Both continued to test negative throughout the week, and the school announced Friday morning that they would travel to Pittsburgh and are expected to be available for Saturday night’s game.
Advertisement
St. Cloud is without senior Easton Brodzinski, who scored a pair of goals in the win over BU, but suffered a serious leg injury against BC. He is in Pittsburgh, watching his teammates from a wheelchair.
Both schools are searching for their first Division 1 national championship
This is UMass’s second appearance in the championship game, have reached the final in 2019 before losing to Duluth, 3-0. St, Cloud is making its first appearance in the championship game.
Both teams are deep
While some teams might shorten the bench in big games, both UMass and St. Cloud are comfortable rolling out four lines.
“I think the biggest difference of our team over the last two months is the fact that we’ve got four lines that I’m very comfortable with,” said UMass coach Greg Carvel. “It’s such an asset to be able to do that, to play all your players.”
Bobby Trivigno gets his shot
Two years ago as a freshman, the talented UMass forward had to sit out the championship game after he was suspended for an illegal check to the head in the semifinal. But the junior, who won the Walter Brown Award as as New England’s top American-born college player and set up the game-winning goal Thursday night, will be in the lineup Saturday night.
Advertisement
Follow Andrew Mahoney @GlobeMahoney.