Over the weekend UMass hockey’s Shane Walsh, Ben Gallacher and goaltender Henry Dill were arrested by Amherst police in connection with a loud party off-campus.  Also arrested was former player Evan Stack who retired from the sport last year due to concussion issues.  The Collegian’s Jason Kates reports that the four were arraigned today in Hampshire County Court and Walsh, Gallacher, and Stack paid fines for violating Amherst’s noise bylaw.  Dill paid a fine for disorderly conduct after “punching a police car”.

There hasn’t been any news if the players would be disciplined by the team for the violations.  Dan Malone got the standard response from the school.

First off, getting arrested for noise violations seems excessive.  What happened to cops just breaking up a party and sending people home?  I’m not sure what went on with Dill but that whole part just seems odd.  Part of me is content with chalking this up to college students being college students.  I think very few of us can say we weren’t in similar situations during our college days.  These infractions seem about as minor as you can get.

Yet, we are mere days away from the team’s first game.  This is critical upcoming season for UMass hockey, who was picked to finish last by just about anyone connected to Hockey East.  This program desperately needs a turnaround.  To have the team’s only two seniors and returning goaltender arrested, even on such trivial charges, is disappointing.  This team doesn’t need distraction.  It needs discipline and focus if it’s going to beat expectations this year.  This type of incident calls into question just how focused they are for the task ahead.

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Oleg Yevenko was sent down by the Columbus Blue Jackets to the the AHL over the weekend, but really impressed beforehand.  Sounds like it’s probably a question of when, not if, Oleg makes his NHL debut this season.

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Just five days until Dalhousie and we have a couple more Minutemen to feature as part of our countdown.  First up is #6, sophomore forward Dominic Trento.  Trento got off to a slow start during his freshman year due to some nagging injury issues.  In fact, he would play just six games in the first half of the season, registering one assist during that time.  But the winter break helped him get healthy and in the Catamount Cup tournament in Burlington just before New Year’s he would notch a goal in the 5-1 win over Air Force.

From that point onward Trento would become a regular part of the offense for the Minutemen.  He would total 5 goals and 4 assists over his final 16 games.  The team would go 5-3-0 when he registered a point while going 6-20-2 when he did not.  Trento isn’t a flashy player, but makes an impact through good vision on the ice, ability to move the puck, and willingness to get into the corners.  With the departures on offense Trento seems like one of those players who could potentially have a breakthrough season as opportunities arise.

photo by Thom Kendall/UMass Athletics

Callum Fryer will be wearing #5 on the blueline for the Minutemen this season.  Fryer was the last of this year’s recruiting class to commit to Coach Micheletto, not doing so until early July.  It ended up being an pretty eventful summer for the 6’2” defender as the Ontario native also had the chance to attend the Toronto Maple Leafs prospect camp.  Fryer turned heads this past season playing for the Aurora Tigers of the OJHL where he had 4 goals and 12 assists in 41 regular season games.  It was enough to get him listed on the NHL Central Scouting’s Midterm Rankings, though he ended up not getting selected this past June.  His play with Aurora was also good enough to get an invite to play for Canada East in the World Junior A Challenge where he was the lone Canadian player to make the All-Tournament team.

With a lot being made of UMass freshman blueliners and NHL draft picks William Lagesson and Ivan Chukarov, Fryer has flown under the radar a bit as we look ahead to the season.  But if the Minutemen are truly going to retool the defensive corps they’ll need Fryer and Carmine Buono to play just as big as the more well known freshmen defenders.

photo by Robert John Boucher/OJHL