UMass 2021 NCAA Men's Hockey Champions

The University of Massachusetts (Amherst) won its first ever Hockey East tournament title this season. Now it's also claimed its inaugural NCAA championship.

The Minutemen blitzed St. Cloud State, 5-0, on Saturday night at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh to win the school's first men's hockey national title, and first NCAA crown for UMass in any sport since 1998 when football won the NCAA Division I-AA Football Championship.

Five years ago, UMass Hockey won a total of five games under new head coach Greg Carvel. Two years ago, the Minutemen and Carvel made it to their first NCAA championship contest, but were blanked by defending national champion Minnesota-Duluth in Buffalo.

Not this time. This year, it was UMass doing the whitewashing.

Aaron Bohlinger's first career goal early in the first period on Saturday stood up as the game-winner for UMass (20-5-4 overall), before Reed Lebster made it 2-0 with just over a minute remaining in the opening stanza. Philip Lagunov (shorthanded) and Matthew Kessel (power play) then scored in the second period to make it 4-0 for the Minutemen after 40 minutes, before Bobby Trivigno salted away the scoring exactly six minutes into the final frame.

Filip Lindberg made 25 saves for the shutout in his return to the UMass net, after he sat out the semifinal win over Minnesota-Duluth two nights earlier due to COVID-19. Dávid Hrenák made 17 stops for SCSU (20-11-0), in the Huskies' first appearance in the NCAA Division I title game.

It was the first NCAA title for a Hockey East team since 2015, when Providence edged Boston University in Boston. The win by UMass also snapped a string of four straight national title championships by St. Cloud's league, the NCHC. 

UMass Loses Four to COVID Before Frozen Four

 

The University of Massachusetts will be playing shorthanded on Thursday when the NCAA Division I Men's Hockey Frozen Four begins in Pittsburgh.

According to published reports, leading goal-scorer Carson Gicewicz, rookie goaltender Henry Graham, sophomore forward Jerry Harding, and starting netminder Filip Lindberg have all been ruled out of their national semifinal contest against Minnesota-Duluth due to contract tracing for COVID-19 before UMass (18-5-4 overall) left for Pennsylvania.

Gicewicz, a St. Lawrence transfer, leads the Minutemen with 17 goals so far this season, and ranks third on the squad with 24 points. Graham has yet to see action with the Minutemen while Harding, a Providence transfer, has two goals and six points to date. Lindberg has a record of 9-1-4 in 14 appearances this campaign, to go with a 1.33 goals-against average and four shutouts.

It is not known if the foursome would be available to play Saturday if UMass defeats UMD, in what is a rematch of the 2019 NCAA title game. The winner will move on to the national championship game against the winner of the early semifinal between Minnesota State and St. Cloud State.

UMD Wins 2019 NCAA Men's Division I Hockey Title

For the second straight season, Minnesota-Duluth is the NCAA Division I men's ice hockey national champion.

The Bulldogs scored once in each period Saturday to blank the University of Massachusetts, 3-0, in the 2018-19 national title game at Key Bank Center in Buffalo. Minnesota-Duluth (29-11-2 overall), which played in its third consecutive NCAA championship game, is the first back-to-back Division I men's hockey national champion since Denver in 2004 and 2005.

Parker Mackay (power-play goal), Mikey Anderson, and Jackson Cates scored for the Bulldogs, while Hunter Shepard stopped all 18 shots by UMass (31-10-0 overall). UMD outshot UMass, 31-18, and also snuffed all four power play attempts by the Minutemen, who were the top power play team in the nation this season.

Mackay, who also assisted on Anderson's second-period goal, was named Most Outstanding Player of this year's Frozen Four after playing in his final collegiate contest Saturday. Filip Lindberg finished with 28 stops for the Minutemen, who suffered the fourth shutout loss of their most successful  season ever.

The National Collegiate Hockey Conference (NCHC) has now won the last four consecutive NCAA Division I men's ice hockey national championships, after its formation in 2013. It will try for five straight national titles next April at the 2020 NCAA Frozen Four in Detroit.