Athol Daily News – After 3 weeks off, UMass hockey returns to ice against Clarkson at Kwik Trip Holiday Face-Off

After three full weeks off since its last game against Merrimack on Dec. 7, the UMass hockey team finally returns to the ice on Wednesday. The Minutemen are in Milwaukee, Wisc. to participate in the Kwik Trip Holiday Face-Off, a four-team, two-day event hosted by the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee’s Fiserv Forum.

UMass (7-6-3) will open play on Wednesday with a 5 p.m. game against Clarkson, while Wisconsin and Lake Superior State meet in the other semifinal at 8:30 p.m. The two winners will play on Thursday in the final at 8:30, while the consolation game is set for 5 p.m.

The Minutemen, which were ranked No. 15 in the most recent USCHO.com poll, have already played in one neutral site tournament this season. The club lost in a shootout to Quinnipiac in the final of the Friendship Four in Belfast, Northern Ireland on Nov. 26.

Missing Minutemen

UMass will be without two of its best players this week in Wisconsin.

Freshman forward Kenny Connors and sophomore defenseman Ryan Ufko are currently playing with USA hockey at the 2023 IIHF World Junior Championship in Halifax and Moncton, Canada. The tournament runs from Dec. 26 through Jan. 5.

USA defeated Latvia in its opening game on Monday, 5-2, and will next face Slovakia on Wednesday before a game with Switzerland on Thursday. Should the Americans advance to the quarterfinal round, those matchups are scheduled for Jan. 2 with semifinals taking place on Jan. 4 and the Gold and Bronze medal games slated for Jan. 5.

In two pre-tournament victories over Finland and Sweden last week, the UMass duo keyed the charge as Ufko netted four points (1G, 3A) while Connors tallied the game winner against Sweden.

On the ice for UMass this winter, Connor leads the team in scoring with 17 points on a team-high seven goals and 10 assists. He’s also a plus-8 rating, and has been a two-time Hockey East Rookie of the Month.

Ufko is tied for third in points (13) and has a team-best 10 assists alongside Connors.

Team USA is coached by Quinnipiac’s Rand Pecknold.

Scouting Clarkson

The Minutemen face a relatively unfamiliar opponent in Clarkson, as the Golden Knights and Minutemen have met just five times in their history with UMass sporting a 3-1-1 all-time record. The most famous of those meetings came in the 2007 NCAA Tournament, when Kevin Jarman netted an overtime goal to lift UMass to a 1-0 victory.

This year’s Clarkson squad enters Wednesday’s game with a 7-8-2 record. The Knights have a four-game winless streak, including a pair of shootout losses against Brown and Yale. They haven’t played since Dec. 10.

The Knights are led by Ayrton Martino in points (18) and assists (15) while Anthony Callin leads the team in goals (8).

The program has won its last three in-season tournaments. In 2018 Clarkson captured the Desert Hockey Classic, while also nabbing titles in the 2017 Friendship Four and 2016 Notre Dame Shillelagh Tournament.

Bridgeport Regional 2.0

While UMass is the only ranked team in the four-team field, there are some programs with a bit of recent history in the mix.

Both Wisconsin and Lake Superior State were in the same NCAA Bridgeport Regional with the Minutemen during the team’s run to the national championship in 2021. UMass beat Lake Superior State in the opening round, though Wisconsin was upset by Bemidji State in its opener, thwarting a potential second round game. The Minutemen went on to beat Bemidji and then won twice in the Frozen Four in Pittsburgh to hoist the program’s first-ever national title.

From the game notes

Through 16 games on the season, UMass is second in the nation in strength of schedule and sits at No. 12 in the Pairwise. … The Minutemen have played 12 of their 16 games against teams in the top 14 in Pairwise with eight games against teams in the top-seven. UMass went 3-2-1 against opponents currently in the top-four in Quinnipiac (2), Merrimack (3) and Denver (4). … The team’s record against teams outside the top 15 in Pairwise thus far is 3-0-1, outscoring those opponents 20-5. … Other teams in the tournament ranked in the Pairwise? Wisconsin (32), Clarkson (44) and Lake Superior State (57).