Only one game on the docket this week for the No. 18 UMass hockey team, but it's a big one as it'll wrap up a three-game season-series with UConn on Friday in Storrs.

The 11th-ranked Huskies currently hold the advantage after going 1-0-1 against the Minutemen during a home-and-home series Oct. 25-26.

Now as more than three months have gone by, UMass looks to snatch a victory against a dangerous UConn squad in the series finale.

“I think Maine is a fast team, UConn is a bigger team,” Minutemen head coach Greg Carvel said. “I think they play similar styles, it's very simple. You're going to have to match our compete, you're going to have to match our speed, you're going to have to match our compete and to me, UConn, they've got some big bodies. They've got some smaller guys too, but some big guys that stand out to me."

Since the initial two-game series in the fall, the Huskies have vaulted up the national polls and the Hockey East standings, in large part due to an eight-game unbeaten streak.

UConn won its first four games back from the winter break, then went 2-0-2 in its next four, before falling to Providence, 6-3, last Saturday.

The Huskies are now tied for sixth in the Pairwise ratings and sit in fourth in Hockey East.

“I mean it's a really good team,” UMass sophomore goalie Michael Hrabal said. “We need to be focused on ourselves. If we show up and play to the standard that we can, it should be like a winnable hockey game.”

Hrabal couldn't extend his winning streak to four (a career high) in the Minutemen's 3-2 loss at Maine on Sunday. The 6-foot-7 goalie rattled off three straight after resting in favor of Jackson Irving on Jan. 18 versus Merrimack, however his 28 saves weren't enough in the defeat to the Black Bears.

“It's pretty high,” Carvel said on his confidence level in Hrabal. “I think he saw he did pretty well on Sunday. He's a kid that I feel like he keeps growing, which he's supposed to do, and that growth sends confidence to the rest of the team. The thing about [Hrabal] is the circumstances don't faze him. Maine is a tough place to play, I don't worry about him being erratic because of that. My only concern for him is there are parts of his game that need to grow and that he needs to work on those and he is.”

The Utah Hockey Club draft pick sports a 2.39 goals-against average and a .923 save-percentage in 23 games.

With the likes of top-ranked Boston College, No. 10 UMass Lowell and a couple more against No. 5 Maine coming after Friday's pivotal contest against UConn, Hrabal is likely the Minutemen's most important player in determining their postseason position.

“It's just a game,” Hrabal said. “My job is to save a puck, it doesn't matter if you play home or away, indoors or outdoors, so I'm just there to save a puck, that's all.”

UMass' power play went through another cold stretch last weekend, failing to convert on six opportunities across both games. The Huskies’ penalty-kill has a 82.8 percent success rate (fifth in Hockey East) and killed off four of the five Minutemen power plays in the battles in October.

“My memory tells me that the game at our place, that we played pretty well and we should have won in regulation and we won in a shootout,” Carvel said. “The game there, they really impressed me with how hard they played. It's one of the few games this year I felt like we didn't have a lot of momentum in the game. I think it was probably a game that gave them a lot of confidence early in the year, but playing in their building is hard. It's definitely a home-rink advantage for them.”

Puck drop at Toscano Family Ice Forum is set for 4 p.m.