Watching Greg Carvel and his players celebrate UMass’s first Hockey East tournament championship on Saturday night, I thought of a conversation with associate head coach Ben Barr in March 2017.
It was near the end of Carvel’s first season in Amherst. When I say the Minutemen were bad that year, I’m being charitable. They lost their last 17 games, finishing with a record of 5-29-2.
But on that night at Providence College’s Schneider Arena, as Barr and I chatted during the pregame warmup, he exuded a quiet confidence and determination that UMass would be on the way up in short order.
So what if the Minutemen hadn’t had a winning season since 2006-07.
“We only had five wins, but it didn’t feel like it. It felt like the program had turned a corner,’’ said Harvard assistant coach James Marcou, a former All-American at UMass who was a volunteer assistant on Carvel’s staff in that first year.
“Sometimes you get five wins and you’re like, ‘What the heck. What’s next?’ We were so excited for the future.’’
And with good reason, it turned out.
The next season, Cale Makar, Mario Ferraro and John Leonard — NHLers in the making — arrived, and the culture of hard work and accountability demanded by Carvel took hold. The Minutemen were on their way.
Now, five years into Carvel’s tenure, UMass has elbowed its way into the top tier of Hockey East. With their heavy, in-your-face style of play, they have one trip to the Frozen Four (2019) under their belts and they’re in the hunt for another as they face off against Lake Superior State in the NCAA Regional in Bridgeport, Conn., on Friday.
Carvel and his associate head coaches, Barr and Jared DeMichiel, have engineered one of the more stunning turnarounds in recent college hockey history. And all indications are that the program is well-positioned for long-term success.
The Minutemen have hit home runs in recruiting. Defenseman Zac Jones, a first-team Hockey East All-Star, and winger Bobby Trivigno, the MVP of the Hockey East tournament, are two shining examples on this year's team.
UMass jumped on those two early. “We were at a point in our program where we needed to do things like that. We had to use our hunches, make some educated guesses. With both of those kids, they turned out to be stars for us,’’ Carvel told me a few weeks ago.
Says Marcou, “Ben and Jared do a good job getting players for Carvy, and Carvy has trust in those guys. They’re all on the same page, from top to bottom, from the administration to the assistant coaches to the strength and conditioning guys and the trainers.
“Carvy’s very clear about his expectations and standards, which makes it easy for college players. There’s a standard there and if you’re not following it, it doesn’t matter who you are, you’re going to be accountable.’’
The 50-year-old Carvel has a long résumé that includes stops at virtually every level of the game.
He’s been an assistant coach in prep school at Canterbury and at Division 3 Amherst College. He’s been a director of hockey operations with the Lowell Lock Monsters of the AHL and a scouting coordinator with Anaheim in the NHL.
He spent a total of seven seasons as an NHL assistant with Anaheim and Ottawa, working with head coaches such as Mike Babcock and Bryan Murray. From there, he returned to college hockey as an assistant at St. Lawrence under his former coach, Joe Marsh, then took over for Marsh as head coach.
NHL analyst Pierre McGuire of NBC has an interesting perspective on Carvel.
As an assistant at St. Lawrence, McGuire recruited and coached Carvel, who scored 124 points in 124 games for the Saints, was team captain as a senior and won the ECAC Defensive Forward of the Year award in 1992-93. And after McGuire moved on to a scouting job with Pittsburgh, he was instrumental in the Penguins’ selection of Carvel in the NHL supplemental draft, which no longer exists.
“First place I met Greg Carvel was when he was going to Hotchkiss. (St. Lawrence coach) Joe Marsh and I, we were working Hockey Night in Boston (the summer hockey showcase). We coached the New York state team and Greg was on that team,’’ said McGuire.
Marsh and McGuire convinced Carvel, who is from Canton, N.Y., to go to college in his hometown.
“He was one of the most actively sought-after players in his era, especially out of the prep schools. We were really grateful that he chose to come back to Canton and play at St. Lawrence. He had an amazing career,’’ said McGuire.
What kind of a player was Carvel?
“Very similar to a Patrice Bergeron-type. He had superior skills. He could play against the other team’s best players. If you needed a power-play goal, he could get it for you. He was a very good center iceman in terms of faceoffs. His hockey IQ was off the charts,’’ he said.
Though he never played pro in North America, Carvel’s time on NHL coaching staffs gives him an advantage, McGuire said.
“He’s got a lot of tremendous relationships built with a lot of different coaches and managers around the NHL. You have the college reference point, but you’re bringing in a pro mentality. I think players really thrive in that.
“A lot of coaches at the college level are phenomenal coaches, they’re great, but they never really experienced coaching at the pro level. Some of them even played at the pro level, but to play at the pro level and coach at the pro level is two different things. For Greg, I think he’s got the best of both worlds, so he can create that culture that’s been so successful.’’
Les Kuntar was an All-American goalie and Carvel’s teammate at St. Lawrence for a couple of seasons.
Looking back on it now, Kuntar said, even as a young player Carvel displayed some of the traits that have made him a success.
“He was a natural leader in the room. When he came in as a freshman, you could just tell the kid would probably wear a ‘C’ some day because of his personality and character,’’ said Kuntar, whose son Trevor is a freshman at Boston College and a Bruins draft pick.
“He’s perfectly cut out to be a college coach. We played for the great Joe Marsh. I tell people I’m a better man today because I played for him, and I think Carvy probably took a lot from him.’’
Kuntar took his son to St. Lawrence for an unofficial visit when Carvel was head coach.
“That was the first time I’d seen him in his element. I can see why he’s successful,’’ he said.
The rest of the hockey world is seeing it, too.
