Saturday night in Pittsburgh was the culmination of UMass coach Greg Carvel’s five-year plan. The man who changed #ZooMass to #NewMass, the man who inherited a Hockey East doormat, led his Minutemen to the school’s first national championship with a dominating 5-0 win over St. Cloud State in the Frozen Four.
Having the five-goal cushion allowed Carvel, normally a stern task-master, to deliver a tender message to his troops with five minutes remaining. “I asked them to soak it in,” said Carvel. “They earned this. I told them, ‘I’m 50 years old, this is as good as it gets.’ ”
Much of championship Saturday was a coronation for the Minutemen, and there was no shortage of heroes: the ultimate highlight-reel goal from senior Phil Lagunov; tourney M.O.P. Bobby Trivigno’s snipe, filled with sweet redemption after missing the 2019 championship due to suspension; and the ultimate hero story written by victorious goaltender Filip Lindberg.
In a college hockey season that will be remembered as the year of COVID, Carvel and Lindberg found themselves in a pandemic-generated crisis at the Frozen Four. Lindberg, sidelined by COVID protocol, was forced to watch his mates win behind backup goalie Matt Murray in Thursday’s semifinal. Lindberg arrived in Pittsburgh Friday and didn’t get onto the ice until Saturday’s morning skate.
Carvel snuffed out any goalie controversy by confidently inserting Lindberg into the starting lineup. The junior star had earned the start after becoming the stingiest goalie in the nation starting in January. Lindberg rewarded Carvel’s faith with his fourth career shutout in the national tournament, an NCAA record.
A native of Finland, Lindberg faced two challenging moments early in the contest: the first came 90 seconds into the match, when countryman Veeti Miettinen rang a shot off the crossbar. After surviving that unnerving clang, Lindberg found himself run over by 6-foot-4 Huskies defenseman Nick Perbix in a loud collision. According to Carvel, Lindberg’s response was indicative of how much Lindberg has grown in the past year.
“He got absolutely railroaded a couple minutes into the game, he hurt his ankle on that play,” said Carvel. “But he was so good this year because of his mental toughness. That was a problem in the past.”
Lindberg took a few moments to regroup from the collision, then completed his 25-save shutout, earning him All-Tournament honors.
Lindberg’s postseason timeline contained massive swings of emotion — from getting blindsided by COVID protocols after the regionals, to watching the UMass-Duluth semifinal cooped up in an Amherst hotel room. “I’m not going to lie, I was pretty nervous,” said Lindberg about being isolated from his mates during their Frozen Four rematch with the Bulldogs. “You want to be there, you want to help the team. There’s literally nothing you can do. I was really nervous. I had to take a walk outside because I couldn’t watch.”
Forty-eight hours later, he became the first non-North American goalie to win an NCAA title.
“He’s the unwritten story of college hockey,” Carvel said.
Lost in what seemed like a game-long celebration of maroon and white was the fact that UMass was noticeably outplayed in the first five minutes of action. Carvel was hissing mad on the bench, exhorting his club to flip the switch.
Defenseman Ty Farmer responded with a game-changing play from his own goal line, firing a pass that sprung Aaron Bohlinger and Ryan Sullivan on a 2-on-0, a unicorn in any college hockey game, let alone an NCAA championship. Bohlinger converted on the tic-tac-toe passing play, one that resembled a video game. Not only had the Minutemen survived the early onslaught, but they found themselves with a lead, something they hadn’t relinquished all season.
If there was one college hockey highlight that will represent the 2021 championship game for posterity, it was the shorthanded goal by Lagunov in the second period. His world-class toe drag undressed SCSU defenseman Perbix, and he followed that deke with a delicate finish, tucking the disc through David Hrenak’s five-hole. The memorable shorty made the game 3-0, sending all of Pioneer Valley into a frenzy. From that point on, the outcome was a fait accompli, as UMass danced over an overwhelmed St. Cloud squad.
In describing his piece de resistance, Lagunov first claimed he blacked out on his masterful dangle and finish, but as the night wore on, he shared his secrets.
“That move I brought back from hockey school back home,” said Lagunov, who then credited his UMass drills for the final act. “We talked a lot about five-hole goals, trying to spread the goalie over the past few months. In terms of actually putting it in, that was put in practice.”
NCAA championships are won in increments, not overnight, and not in a single season. Ever since UMass athletic director Ryan Bamford wisely hired Carvel from St. Lawrence, UMass began building its hockey program into a contender brick-by-brick, one season at a time. After starting off the Carvel era with a 29-loss campaign, it took another two years to finally establish a winning season. Vital milestones began passing by UMass’s rearview mirror in rapid succession: a berth in the Hockey East semifinals; an NCAA regional title; and the program’s first trip to the national championship game in 2019. That experience was vital in getting the Minutemen over the top.
For Most Outstanding Player Trivigno, the junior who was psychologically crushed from sitting out the 2019 championship game, redemption in Pittsburgh was difficult to put into words.
“It’s crazy,” said Trivigno. “Where I was two years ago to now, in terms of emotionally … worlds of difference. I’m just so grateful I got to play and be part of this amazing team. It’s just the best feeling in the world.”
Much has been made of the culture that Carvel instituted in Amherst. Trivigno was the right man to describe the #NewMass philosophy. “It’s being the best at everything,” said Trivigno, who on Friday was named first-team All-American. “The way you handle yourself in a public setting, around the community, in school. The culture is deeply embedded in everything we do. It’s not just on the ice.”
An emotional Carvel fought through a rough cough to describe the foundation of his program’s remarkable five-year journey: “My vision was never to win a national championship. My vision was to build a program that great pride could be taken in. I feel like we won this the right way. We didn’t take shortcuts, we didn’t cheat the game at all, we did it absolutely the right way. For the last four years we’ve gotten better and better every year. I’m very grateful for the people that laid the groundwork so that we could get to where we are. I have great pride in what we have accomplished.”
Saturday night was not the moment to speculate on Carvel’s potential return to the NHL, and he certainly wasn’t ready to comment on his professional future. Two of his two closest friends died this season: his father-in-law as well as fellow coach Red Gendron, the UMaine mentor who passed away Friday.
Carvel has given UMass hockey his heart and soul, never more so than this year of stringent COVID protocols and painful personal loss.
“It’s been a grind. I’m completely spent,” said a somber Carvel. “I’m going to go hide out for a few weeks and reset.”
