Athol Daily News – UMass hockey notebook: Nation’s best power play percentage not sustainable, but execution is

AMHERST – UMass’ power play is experiencing a power surge.

The Minutemen lead the nation converting 47.4 percent of their man up opportunities. That’s more than 10 percent above No. 2 North Dakota (36.4).

It won’t remain that far ahead or at that level.

“It’s not sustainable. Since I’ve been here, twice we’ve had the best power play in the country, and I think we were at 28 and 27 [percent],” UMass coach Greg Carvel said. “If you’re above 20 you’ve got a really good power play and if you’re above 25, you have a very good power play. This is early in the year. We haven’t really had that many power plays.”

No. 5 UMass only has 19 power play attempts this season through seven games. That’s 46th among the 60 Division I programs.

Most of its strength comes from its two sophomore NHL draft pick defensemen: Scott Morrow and Ryan Ufko. Morrow’s scored twice on the power play and Ufko once, and they work together at the blue line to keep the pressure on their shorthanded opponents.

“Their ability to skate pucks into the zone and settle it down when there’s pressure on us, Scotty Morrow is unbelievable at being able to hold onto a puck. Not many players at this level have that kind of patience with the puck, and Ufko is excellent at it, too,” Carvel said. “That’s a big part to why your power play works is you’re able to maintain possession and not have to chase it down the ice again. Those two guys are elite at this level and almost single handedly the reason why our power play is so good.”

Morrow didn’t take all the credit. He emphasized the team’s puck movement and the fact that everyone on the unit has a power play goal. To him, that’s why they’ll be able to keep up what they’re doing.

“It’s not like we’ve used our bag of tricks and they’re going to catch on to us,” Morrow said. “We haven’t really scored a lot of goals the same way. We share the puck and we have a lot of different ways to attack. I think we’re going to continue scoring because we take what the other team gives us.”

Even if the percentage dips to more realistic but still elite levels, there are ways for a power play to succeed.

“Obviously you’d love to score any power play, but just generating momentum for your team by really making the other team feel the pressure that you’re putting on them and putting stress on the other team’s goaltender,” Carvel said. “Making them know even if you don’t score that they’re lucky that they got out of it alive.”

ANOTHER ONE? – The Dallas Stars signed former UMass goaltender Matt Murray to an entry-level contract Monday. Starter Jake Oettinger was injured Saturday against the New York Rangers.

He’ll become the 11th Minuteman in the NHL this season once he makes his debut.

Murray appeared in five games for the Stars’ AHL affiliate the Texas Stars and went 2-2. He was fourth in the league among rookies with a 2.00 goals against average with one shutout.

“That was a bit of a surprise when I saw it on social media. It’s indicative of his time at UMass. He grew a ton in a lot of different ways,” Carvel said. “Dallas reached out to me a week ago and said thanks for helping us get Matt and having him come our way. He’s been such a big asset to our franchise. They didn’t say anything to me about signing him to an entry level contract, but that’s quite a statement that they were willing to do that.”

TRUST YOUR GUT – UMass encouraged Carvel to use his coaches challenge on a hit in the second period Saturday at Merrimack. The call on the ice was confirmed.

“This is the conversation: Nolan (Gluchowski) will say ‘they’re saying to challenge it’ and turn around and I go ‘they’re never right.’ ‘No, they said this one for sure,’” Carvel said. “And I’m like ‘OK if they’re 100 percent sure.’ And I challenge it, and it’s wrong. Their track record hasn’t changed recently.”

Kyle Grabowski can be reached at kgrabowski@gazettenet.com. Follow him on Twitter @kylegrbwsk.