It’s do-or-die the rest of the way for the UMass hockey team.

The Minutemen (20-13-5) qualified for the NCAA Tournament for the sixth time under head coach Greg Carvel’s watch after earning an at-large bid into this year’s tournament field following last Sunday’s Selection Show. UMass was placed in the Fargo Regional along with Western Michigan, Minnesota State and their upcoming opponent, Minnesota.

The Minutemen will square off with the Golden Gophers (25-10-4) on Thursday night, serving as a rematch of the 2022 NCAA Tournament semifinal battle in which Minnesota won in overtime, 4-3, in Worcester.

“Just another road game for us,” UMass alternate captain Lucas Mercuri said during Wednesday’s press conference in Fargo. “We’ve been road dogs all year so we’re really excited to get going.”

UMass has an all-time record of 0-5-0 against Minnesota.

The Golden Gophers are a dangerous team on offense as they rank third in the country in goals-scored (150) and second in the nation in shots (1374). Jimmy Snuggerud — a top-10 Hobey Baker Award finalist — is Minnesota’s best player, with a team-high 22 goals and 49 points. 

The Golden Gophers have five players with 30 points or more — as do the Minutemen — with former UConn forward Matthew Wood (38 points) and defenseman Sam Rinzel (31 points) among Minnesota’s best point producers.

During Wednesday’s press conference, Carvel compared the Golden Gophers to Boston University, the team that eliminated UMass from the Hockey East Playoffs on March 15.

“High-octane offense, create offense the same way, so we feel like we just played a playoff game against a very similar style,” Carvel said. “We liked how we played at BU and we’re basically just going to have the same mindset going in against them.”

UMass will be looking to exploit the Golden Gopher’s less-than-stellar penalty kill that is the worst of all 16 teams that earned a spot in the NCAA Tournament. Minnesota’s PK is at 75.9 percent, which is about 14 points lower than No. 1 overall seed Boston College’s 90.4 PK percentage, the best in the NCAA Tournament.

The Minutemen’s power play is converting at 24.8 percent, the fourth-best among NCAA Tournament teams.

One challenge the Golden Gophers will have to overcome quickly is a long layoff, 18 days to be exact, between games. Minnesota was eliminated earlier than expected in the Big 10 playoffs, falling to Notre Dame in three games, with the final game coming back on March 9.

“We had to go hard last week. We went hard in conditioning and we were physical and you’re always scared to do that late in the year because you don’t want to get another injury, but we had no choice,” Minnesota head coach Bob Motzko said. “We had to go hard in practice and I’ll give our guys and our leadership group, they were fantastic. Whatever we threw at them they wanted more.”

Junior Cole O’Hara’s next point will set a program record for the most in a single season at UMass as the forward currently has 51 points on the season. O’Hara was not among the 10 finalists for the Hobey Baker despite being tied for fourth in the nation in points. Sophomores Aydar Suniev and Jack Musa both have 18 goals on the season while senior Lucas Mercuri (31 points) and sophomore Dans Locmelis (30 points) round out the Minutemen’s top-five scorers.

Sophomore goalie Michael Hrabal will look to bounce back after UMass’ 3-2 overtime loss to the Terriers in the Hockey East quarterfinal round. Hrabal has been strong down the stretch for the Minutemen, posting one of the country’s best saves-above-expected numbers (8.92) since Feb. 1, per a tweet from Brad Elliott Schlossman of the Grand Forks Herald. 

“Michael will decide every game,” Carvel said. “We’re a good enough team that we’ll be in every game, he’ll decide and he’s got that ability, just ask Team Canada.”

Hrabal helped Team Czechia beat Team Canada during this year’s World Junior Championships for the second straight season.

Captain Linden Alger is the last player remaining from UMass 2021 national championship-winning squad and the Centerville native sees similarities between this year’s group and the one that went all the way.

“Thinking about my freshman year, we had such a close team, tight-knit group,” Alger said. “I think after Christmas break [this year],  we hammered down on really connecting and building trust within the group and I think that’s translated into our play on the ice and we’ve gotten some good results from it.”

Puck drop on Thursday is scheduled for 8:30 p.m., eastern time. Should the Minutemen win, they’d play the winner of Western Michigan and Minnesota State on Saturday.