Ashley Freedland also contributed to this report.
The University of Miami ice hockey team knew from the first day of tryouts, the first practice and the first game that this season was going to be different.
The team opened the year with a tough test against the University of Central Florida (UCF), a team it had lost to by 10 goals in the season finale just seven months prior. To both teams’ surprise, the ’Canes were able to shock the UCF Knights 8-5 in an opening road win.
“We went out there, having never played together. We’d just had one practice, and we were able to pull it out against a [Division II] team, and they were so shocked, so shocked,” senior assistant captain Max Mencimer said. “The last game they beat us like 10-0 so they were not expecting that at all, and honestly, I wasn’t either, but it was sick, it was awesome.”
This unexpected victory was a catalyst for a team that is about to play as the number one seed in the Division III Nationals tournament over spring break. This was a team that only won a single game last season and couldn’t even get half of its players to show up to practice or games.
Two weekends ago, the team was able to win all three of their playoff games including a shutout of rival Florida Southern. The team had already locked up the number one seed for the playoffs, but the playoff dominance only fueled their confidence heading into nationals.
The Hurricanes had no consistent practice schedules, a sporadic coaching cycle, and a commute of almost an hour to practices during the week. Luckily, for this year’s squad, the group of leaders love hockey and wanted nothing more than to turn the team around in their senior season, and that’s just what they did.
“Our seniors and our captains really pushed kids to be accountable,” sophomore defenseman Owen Gupta said. “Communication was huge, to not skip practice just because you feel like it, and saying, ‘Let’s get people here and let’s work hard.’ Everybody on the team loves the sport, but last year did not feel the same; them getting that love back really pushed all of us to work harder.”
The commitment is felt on and off the ice. This is not just a group of hockey players at Miami; this is a group of friends.
“We’re a pretty close team, probably the closest team I’ve been on in my life,” Gupta said.
That sentiment is felt all over…
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