The No. 20 Massachusetts hockey team is gearing up for its first away-and-home series of the season against Harvard this weekend. With a win against Stonehill last week, the Minutemen (3-3-1) are back at .500, while the Crimson enter the matchup yet to play a game.
UMass through seven games has struggled to settle into a rhythm, especially the forward group rocked by Justin Kerr’s injury, but its goaltending has been consistently solid since the first series. After all three netminders played against Colorado College, head coach Greg Carvel has stuck with Ethan Eskit for four of the past five games.
The freshman enters the weekend with a 2-2-1 record and a 1.59 goals against average, good for 14th in the nation. So far this season, Eskit has made 137 saves and sports a .945 save percentage. Of the goalies who have at least 100 saves, the Calgary, Alberta, native is ninth in save percentage.
Eskit’s steadiness has buoyed an offense averaging 2.57 goals a game, which puts the Minutemen as the No. 37 scoring offense in the country. Last year, they finished as the No. 37 scoring offense with 2.81 goals per game. With five freshman forwards getting significant playing time and forming o...