UMass hockey head coach Greg Carvel’s biggest concern coming into the 2024-25 season was his team’s back-end.

The Minutemen lost defensemen Scott Morrow and Ryan Ufko, two staples on the blue line for three years, to the professional ranks. The duo combined for 56 points a season ago and ate up a ton of critical minutes.

Aaron Bohlinger, Elliot McDermott and Sebastian Tornqvist all transferred and Samuli Niinisaari departed via graduation, making six total defensemen from the 2023-24 team that would not be back.

Freshmen Francesco Dell’Elce and Larry Keenan have carried over their chemistry from the Penticton Vees of the British Columbia Hockey League to Amherst and have been UMass’ second D-pair for a majority of the opening 17 games. Freshman Finn Loftus has also seen spot duty as the rotating seventh defenseman.

But the addition of junior transfer Lucas Olvestad, who was part of Denver’s national title-winning squad a year ago, has made the biggest impact to this year’s UMass group, according to Carvel.

“He’s our identity, he’s big, he’s fast, he’s hard, he’s competitive, he’s vocal, he has a presence to him and we needed that with a young back-end, we needed it badly,” Carvel said. “I can’t imagine where we’d be without him.”

Olvestad has linked up with junior Owen Murray on the Minutemen’s first D-pair and has seen a boost to his offensive numbers .

The rearguard from Stockholm, Sweden has already surpassed his career high in goals (three) and points (seven), and recently earned a shot on the second power-play unit. Olvestad scored against then-No. 11 Boston University on Dec. 7 during a UMass five-minute man-advantage.

“It’s definitely a new thing this year,” Olvestad said regarding his previous power play experience. “Something I’ve done in the past, didn’t really get that opportunity at Denver, but a role I’m comfortable in and I think our unit has done really well recently.”

According to collegehockeynews.com, Olvestad is averaging the most ice-time among Minutemen skaters at 23:07. Dell’Ece is the next closest at 21:38 per game.

“I think coming in with experience and kind of being put in that role right away kind of put the pressure on,” Olvestad said. “Every day just get better, so it’s been pretty easy, the motivation is definitely there.”

Along with returners Kennedy O’Connor, captain Linden Alger and Murray, Olvestad has helped shore up a D-corps that was leaky during the first month of the season, but has improved to the point where the Minutemen are allowing 2.53 goals-per-game on average.

“We talk about the young defensemen, but we needed an old defenseman to come along too,” Carvel said. “To me, he’s been the most important addition to our team this year.”

INTERNATIONAL GAMES – Sophomore goalie Michael Hrabal is expected to make Czechia’s World Juniors roster for the upcoming 2025 World Junior Championship in Ottawa, with games beginning Dec. 26.

Hrabal went 3-2 in goal for his country during last year’s World Juniors tournament as part of the bronze-medal winning Czechia team. Hrabal posted a 3.40 goals-against average and a .877 save-percentage in seven games played.

Should Czechia put together another lengthy run, UMass could be without their starting goalie for both games of the Desert Hockey Classic in Arizona, which kicks off on Jan. 3.

The Minutemen are going to need Hrabal’s A-game whenever he returns to the lineup as the 6-foot-7, 215-pound tender will have a huge say in guiding them to the NCAA Tournament.

“He’s young, he’s 19,” Carvel said. “I think if you asked most parents about their 19-year-olds, they wouldn’t trust them to do too much. He’s a high-level prospect and plays a big role and I think his immaturity was shown at the beginning of this year. He was very inconsistent, but I think he’s going through a very good growth phase. He’s taken big steps.”

Carvel also noted his “biggest regret” of the first half was not pulling Hrabal earlier during UMass’ 4-0 loss to Vermont on Nov. 9.

Freshman Daniel Jencko has also made the preliminary roster for Team Slovakia. Should Jencko make the team, he’ll face off against Hrabal in the round robin stage. Czechia and Slovakia are scheduled to play on Dec. 29.

REWIND & FAST FORWARD – Following a 4-2 loss to No. 13 BU on Wednesday, UMass’ first half of the season is officially in the books.

Consistency was hard to come by as the Minutemen did not win more than two consecutive games at any point through the first 17 games and enter the semester break with a 8-7-2 record.

UMass’ best stretch came from its 5-1 win at Providence onward as it took wins in four of its last six games before the halfway mark.

The Minutemen were great in non-conference games, compiling a 6-2-0 record, but only managed two victories in Hockey East play. That number will have to improve if they want to be an NCAA Tournament team come the end of the season.

Speaking of which, UMass is currently 21st in the Pairwise rankings, which is a system used to select which teams make the NCAA Tournament.

Only the top-16 teams make the tournament, so the Minutemen will either need to win the Hockey East Tournament to guarantee themselves a spot, or start racking up the wins in 2025 to receive an at-large bid.

One of the factors used in Pairwise rankings is Ratings Percentage Index (RPI), which weighs games differently whether or not they were at home or on the road. Essentially, road wins and home losses are weighted more than home wins and road losses.

UMass would be best served improving upon its two wins at Mullins Center for the second half, to avoid the home-loss point deduction. The Minutemen made up for it in the first half, winning five road games, but generally, winning at home avoids issues in the Pairwise.

“You’re aware of it,” Carvel said on when he starts paying attention to the Pairwise rankings. “I was kind of curious, I didn’t know when the Pairwise started clicking in, I was curious where we were going to be because we lost some games we shouldn’t have lost. 

“I said to the team, let’s not put ourselves in a position where we’re waiting to see what a NCHC team does to determine our fate,” Carvel said. “We’re now at a place where we can determine our own fate. There’s some teams ahead of us that I think we can catch but it’s going to be up to us.”

After its tournament in Arizona, 15 of UMass’ final 17 games will be Hockey East matchups. It’s lone non-conference series will be against Alaska in late January for a two-game set at Mullins.

In short, the Minutemen have to win more games than not once the campaign picks back up in January to fulfill their postseason aspirations, with an emphasis on home wins against Hockey East teams, in particular.