The University of Massachusetts hockey team will be without four players, including its leading goal scorer and starting goaltender, on Thursday when the Minutemen hit the ice for the Frozen Four.
Graduate transfer forward Carson Gicewicz and junior netminder Filip Lindberg have been sidelined from the national semifinal due to COVID-19 contact tracing protocols, the university announced on Tuesday.
Sophomore Providence College transfer Jerry Harding, as well as third-string netminder Henry Graham, are also ineligible to play due to contact tracing.
UMass is set to take on Minnesota-Duluth in the Frozen Four on Thursday night for a chance to face the winner of St. Cloud-Minnesota State in the national championship game on Saturday. The news comes less than 24 hours after the Minutemen touched down in Pittsburgh, the site of the 2021 Frozen Four.
“I feel for these players who have sacrificed so much over the last year and committed themselves to getting our team to this point,” head coach Greg Carvel said in a Tuesday morning press release. “They have earned the right to compete for a national championship, and to have this unfortunate situation occur now is hard to comprehend. But nevertheless, it’s a result that we have to accept, and we will move forward together and utilize the depth of our roster for Thursday’s game in Pittsburgh.”
Gicewicz, a redshirt senior from St. Lawrence, initially was recruited by Carvel when he was the Saints head coach from 2012-16. After missing all but two games of his senior year at St. Lawrence due to injury, Gicewicz received an extra year of eligibility.
In 27 games with the Minutemen, the Nichols School product leads the team in goals with 17. He scored four times in the NCAA regional, including a hat trick in the final, pushing UMass to its second Frozen Four in school history, and its second since 2019.
Lindberg, a second-yeam Hockey East All-Star, has been the mainstay for the Minutemen in net all year. In 14 games, he owns a 9-4-1 record with a .946 save percentage and 1.33 goals-against average.
The Finnish netminder allowed just one goal in 120 minutes in the Bridgeport Regional, collecting his fourth shutout of the season in the final against Bemidji State. In total, he stopped 48 shots on the weekend.
After playing the secondary starter role throughout the regular season as a freshman, Lindberg backstopped the Minutemen to the national championship game in 2018-19. He started all four NCAA tournament games and posted a pair of shutouts along the way, until the Cale Makar-led Minutemen were derailed by the defending champion, Duluth, in the title game.
Harding (Canton, Mass.), a product of the Noble and Greenough School, has played in 25 games in his inaugural UMass campaign, recording six points on four assists.
Graham, who arrived in Amherst, Mass., after playing for the Honeybaked Hockey Club and P.A.L Junior Islanders NCDC team, has not seen any action as a freshman this season. After losing both Lindberg and Graham, the Minutemen are now left with senior Matt Murray in the net — who is arguably a starter in his own right.
In 13 games this season, Murray owns a 9-4-0 record with a .913 save percentage and 2.01 goals-against average. As a senior, Murray is 51-27-2 through 86 games at UMass, posting a .915 save percentage and 2.21 GAA in four years.
Former Pope Francis goaltender Zac Steigmeyer (Ludlow, Mass.) will serve as the backup goalie for UMass in the national semifinal game, according to Kyle Grabowski on Twitter.
Liam Flaherty can be reached at [email protected] and on Twitter @_LiamFlaherty.
