AMHERST — For three seasons now, Philip Lagunov has played between some of the best scorers on UMass’ roster.
Last season, the junior was the primary center on the Minutemen’s second line in the middle of high-scoring wingers John Leonard and Jacob Pritchard. This year, he’s played most of the year with Mitchell Chaffee and Oliver Chau on UMass’ top line. Yet the Hamilton, Ontario, Canada native hasn’t been as successful on offense as his linemates.
He has just 20 assists through 99 games in a UMass uniform but always seems to find himself on the ice with the best weapons in UMass’ arsenal at even strength.
“Coach (Greg) Carvel has challenged me to play on a higher level and compete harder,” Lagunov said. “My game is based on energy and when I play an energetic game, I’m more impactful.”
There are a lot of things Lagunov does on the ice that largely go unnoticed because they don’t directly lead to goals. He’s a solid forechecker for the Minutemen and plays strong on the puck when handling it behind the net.
Where he’s most valuable to UMass right now is in the faceoff circle. He leads the team with a 55.7 percent success rate on the draw, which ranks seventh in Hockey East among those with 100 faceoffs this season.
“He plays an honest game, he wins faceoffs, he’s a smart player,” Carvel said. “I trust him, that’s the big thing, he’s reliable, you know he’s not going to cheat the game. He’ll give you all he’s got, but we’re asking him to find ways (to score more).”
Indeed, the biggest problem with No. 7 UMass (16-7-1, 9-4-1 Hockey East) right now is the lack of diversity in goal scorers. Chaffee and Leonard scored five of the Minutemen’s seven goals in last weekend’s sweep over Vermont, and have combined to score 10 of the team’s 18 goals this calendar year.
The only other players with multiple goals in 2020 are Jake McLaughlin and Matthew Kessel, both of whom are defensemen. To make matters worse, just two other forwards have scored in 2020 for UMass — Jake Gaudet and Jack Suter.
It puts more pressure on a player like Lagunov, who put up decent offensive numbers last season to rediscover his form in a pivotal junior season. Lagunov has just five points this season, but just one in the seven games since the Minutemen returned from the winter break.
“He plays most nights on our first line with Chaffee and Chau, that’s a good offensive line,” Carvel said. “He’s got to find ways to get on the score sheet. … He’s capable, we’ve seen it through two years, he used to make really high-end plays and score nice goals. Where has that gone?”
Lagunov found another level of play right before the break with points in back-to-back games and said he knows what his coach is looking for from him when Carvel issues these challenges. Now it’s about executing and striving to find that offensive spark within his style of play.
“It’s a learning curve, it’s my third year now so I know how he challenges me and how I need to react,” Lagunov said. “It’s how you react to challenge and that’s what I’m trying to do.”
McLAUGHLIN EARNS AN “A” — For the first time this season, UMass designated McLaughlin as an assistant captain over the weekend at Vermont. The senior defenseman leads the country in plus-minus with a +24 rating, having been on the ice for only eight even-strength goals against this year.
“He’s been phenomenal and he does so many things that don’t really get recognized,” Carvel said. “He was outstanding this weekend, he won so many battles in our zone, he shuts the other team down. What a response, you give the kid an A and he took his game, which is already pretty good to another level.”
INJURY UPDATES — Gaudet is expected to be available for the Minutemen this weekend against New Hampshire (12-9-1, 6-6-0) after missing both games at Vermont. However, Carvel was non-committal about whether Gaudet would dress for Friday’s 7 p.m. puck drop at Mullins Center and/or Saturday’s game in Durham.
The coach said the decision will be based on how the junior center practiced this week.
Josh Walfish can be reached at jwalfish@gazettenet.com. Follow him on Twitter @JoshWalfishDHG. Get UMass coverage delivered in your Facebook news feed at www.facebook.com/GazetteUMassCoverage.