28th ANNUAL LEDYARD CLASSIC
Friday, December 30th vs. Colgate (4pm)
(Thompson Arena; Hanover, N.H.)
Watch Live ($) | Listen Live | Live Stats | Buy Tickets
Game Notes | Video Preview
Follow on Twitter: @RiverHawkNation @RiverHawkHockey
Commercial Radio:
River Hawk Network: (WCAP 980AM)/UMass Lowell Game Day App
Talent: Bob Ellis (Play by Play); Jim Connelly (Analyst)
Saturday, December 31st vs. Dartmouth (7pm)
Ledyard Classic Championship Game
(Thompson Arena; Hanover, N.H.)
Watch Live ($) | Listen Live | Live Stats | Buy Tickets
Follow on Twitter: @RiverHawkNation @RiverHawkHockey
Commercial Radio:
River Hawk Network: (WCAP 980AM)/UMass Lowell Game Day App
Talent: Bob Ellis (Play by Play); Jim Connelly (Analyst)
SCOUTING THE RIVER HAWKS: UMass Lowell, with a 10-5-3 / 6-3-1 record after sweeping Merrimack, 4-1 and 5-1, nearly three weeks ago, is ranked 7th in both the USA Hockey Magazine and the USCHO polls. The team was picked for a fourth place finish in the Hockey East Coaches' Pre-Season Poll. The River Hawk roster shows nine new faces including six forwards, one defensemen and two goalies.
Joe Gambardella leads the team in scoring with 24 points.
C.J. Smith tops the goal scoring list with ten; Gambardella has eight goals. The four goalies, including two freshmen, entered this season with a combined 99-minutes of collegiate experience. All four have played with
Tyler Wall getting the most time. He has a 2.08 GAA and a .918 save percentage.
SCOUTING THE RAIDERS: Colgate has a 4-9-4 / 2-4-1 record in ECAC play following a weekend split with Arizona State before the winter break. The Raiders were picked to finish eleventh in the ECAC Coaches' pre-season poll and tenth in the Media Poll. The offense has been spread around. Sixteen different players have scored goals. Derek Freeman and Tim Harrison each have five goals: Jake Kulevich tops the points chart with an even dozen. Three goalies have seen action; Charlie Finn has had the most playing time and carries a 3.22 GAA and a .901 save percentage into today's contest.
ALL-TIME SERIES VS. COLGATE: This is just the 18th meeting between the two schools in a series that dates back to 1988. UMass Lowell leads the series 10-7-0. The two schools have not played one another since 2009. The River Hawks won that contest, 5-3, ending a two game Colgate winning streak. The teams have twice faced one another in holiday tournaments, each winning once and in each case in overtime at the Syracuse Invitational.
TOURNAMENTS IN HANOVER: This is the fourth time that UMass Lowell has competed in a holiday tournament in the Thompson Arena in Hanover, N.H. The River Hawks lost to Dartmouth and Northeastern in the 1996-97 Auld Lang Syne Tournament. In the 2002-03 edition UMass Lowell defeated Vermont but fell to Dartmouth in the Championship Game. In the 2009-10 Ledyard Bank Classic the River Hawks defeated Holy Cross but lost to Northeastern.
IN-SEASON TOURNAMENTS: UMass Lowell has enjoyed a good deal of success in in-season tournaments in recent years. The River Hawks have appeared in the Championship Game in six straight tournaments winning four. They took the trophy at the Toyota UConn Holiday Classic, the Frozen Holiday Classic, the Mariucci Classic and the Friendship Four Tournament. During that time UMass Lowell has had a 10-1-1 record in tournament play and also won a shootout.
IN SEASON TOURNAMENT SCORING: Three River Hawks are averaging at least a point a game in holiday tournament action. Defenseman
Dylan Zink has seven-goals and 11-points in nine games. Among the seven goals are two game winners and Zink also scored the shootout difference maker at the Friendship Four Tournament in Belfast a year ago.
C.J. Smith has five-goals and ten-points in eight tournament games.
Michael Kapla has ten assists in ten tournament games.
101 POINTS AND COUNTING: UMass Lowell senior center
Joe Gambardella joined the century club with an assist on
C.J. Smith's third period goal in the River Hawks December 9th win against Merrimack. It was the 100th point of Gambardella's career and the center iceman followed that up with the opening goal the next night. He has 37 goals and 64 assists in 127 games. Gambardella is the 44th player in program history to reach the milestone and the 23rd in the Division I era. Gambardella has 15 points (4g, 11a) in his last eleven games. The last River Hawk to reach 100 points was Joe Pendenza who achieved the mark during the 2013-14 season.
93 POINTS AND COUNTING: UMass Lowell junior forward
C.J. Smith could be the next River Hawk to reach the 100 point milestone. Smith has 93 points on 43-goals and 50-assists in just 96 games.
NON-CONFERENCE, NO PROBLEM: UMass Lowell has more than held its own in non-conference play over the last five-plus years. The River Hawks are 4-2-2 in non-conference games this season and 41-14-5 (.725) against schools from other conferences since the 2011-12 season. UMass Lowell shows wins against Colorado College, St. Lawrence and Omaha this season and a pair of ties against Minnesota Duluth. A year ago UMass Lowell was 9-3-1 against non-conference opponents. The River Hawks are 84-59-10 all-time against teams currently in the ECAC and 13-7-3 since the '11-'12 season.
ON THE NATIONAL STAGE: UMass Lowell has been nationally ranked, in either the USCHO or USAHockey Magazine poll, for 101 consecutive weeks. The stretch began when UMass Lowell appeared at #20 in the USCHO Poll on January 7, 2013. Of those 101 weeks more than half, 68, have been spent in the top ten.
AMONG THE NATIONAL LEADERS: Joe Gambardella ranks in the top 10 in scoring nationally. Gambardella is ninth with 24 points (8g, 16a). Gambardella is fifth among Hockey East players and
C.J. Smith is 13th with 19 points (10g, 9a). Defenseman
Dylan Zink is second among Hockey East Defensemen and third in the nation with 17 points (5g, 12a). His five goals are tops among HEA Dmen. Mattias Göransson is the number two scoring freshman defenseman in Hockey East and is 9th in the nation with 10 points (3g, 7a).
AT THE BREAK: UMass Lowell went into the winter break with ten wins. It is the eighth time in their 34-year Division I history that the River Hawks have reached double digits before the break. They've reached ten wins at the break in five of the last six years. Twice the River Hawks have accumulated an even dozen wins before the break. That was in both 1986-87 (12-2-1) and 2001-02 (12-2-0). In all seven previous cases where UMass Lowell reached double digits before the break the team went on to win a minimum of 20 games in the season.
TEN COUNTING: UMass Lowell is one of four teams in Hockey East with 10 wins or more and one of 13 in the country with double digits showing in the win column. The team's .639 win percentage is 12th best in the nation. Their five losses is the ninth fewest in the country.
WHAT A DIFFERENCE A YEAR MAKES: One year can make a big difference and it has for a couple of UMass Lowell forwards. Through 18-games
John Edwardh has a career high seven-goals and 16-points. At the 18-game mark a year ago, Edwardh had just one-assist. He finished the year four-goals and 13-points.
Jake Kamrass also has established career highs with six-goals and 12-points. He finished the 2015-16 season with five-goals and ten-points and at the 18-game mark he was still looking for his first point of the season.
A WIN WOULD: If UMass Lowell wins tonight it will extend the River Hawks winning streak to three. It would be
Norm Bazin's 135th win at UMass Lowell and the program's 574th as a Division I program, one under .500.
LAST TIME OUT: UMass Lowell completed a two-game weekend sweep of Merrimack College with a 5-1 win, in North Andover, before heading to the winter break. Led by defenseman
Chris Forney (1g, 2a) five different players scored goals, nine had points. Goalie
Garrett Metcalf made 28 saves to pick up his first collegiate win. The night before the River Hawks scored three third period goals to defeat Merrimack, 4-1, at the Tsongas Center.
Ryan Dmowski's goal with 11:45 remaining in the third period broke a 1-1 tie and propelled the River Hawks to the win. Defenseman
Dylan Zink had two goals and
C.J. Smith added a goal in the victory. Goalie
Tyler Wall made 16 saves in earning the victory.
THREE-GOAL THIRD PERIOD: When UMass Lowell scored three-goals in the third period, Dec. 9, it was the first time the team had done that in nearly a year. The last time UMass Lowell had a three-goal third period was on January 30, 2016 when they defeated Arizona State, 8-1.
THE DEFENSE LEADS THE WAY: The River Hawk defense had a big offensive night in UMass Lowell's December 10th 5-1 win at Merrimack. The blue line crew accounted for three goals and ten points.
Chris Forney,
Dylan Zink and
Tommy Panico scored goals.
Michael Kapla, Mattias Goransson and Forney each had a pair of assists. The defense has combined for 14 points in its last four games.
GETTING OFFENSE FROM THE DEFENSE: UMass Lowell has the 7th highest scoring defense corps in the country. The River Hawks blue liners have combined for 12-goals and 51 points. Those numbers are also the second best in HEA.
THE WAIT IS OVER: Junior defenseman
Tommy Panico scored his first collegiate goal December 10th at Merrimack. The goal, which was shorthanded, came in Panico's 70th game. The Wall, N.J. native has 15 career points.
BLASTS FROM THE BLUE LINE: With three goals during the weekend sweep of Merrimack
Dylan Zink became only the fourth UMass Lowell defenseman to score at least 25 career goals during the Division I era. Zink now has 26. Maury Edwards tops the list with 28, Tim Foley and Mike Nicholishen each had 27.
Mr. CLUTCH: Dylan Zink has proven to be Mr. Clutch during the last three seasons. Seventeen of his 26 goals (65.4%) have either tied the score or given the River Hawks the lead. Zink, who tied the game at one December 9th, led UMass Lowell with eight "clutch" goals during the 2015-16 season. Two of his five goals this season are defined as "clutch."
THIRD JERSEY: UMass Lowell unveiled a third or "alternate" December 9th in a 4-1 victory against Merrimack. It was the first time the team has ever won a game wearing an alternate uniform. The River Hawks had worn a graphite grey jersey once in each of the two previous seasons and had worn a throwback "Chiefs" jersey twice in 2007. They had lost all four games. The new jersey is based on the uniform worn by the Lowell Tech teams of the early 1970s. The sweaters featured the name "Lowell" and a number on the front. The player's name and number appear on the back. It is the first time that the "Lowell" name has stood alone on the front of the jersey since the 2006-07 season. The 50th anniversary logo is shown on each shoulder. The jerseys will be auctioned off at the end of the season.
BACK-TO-BACK: UMass Lowell is playing back to back games for the tenth time this season. The River Hawks are 5-3-1 on the first night and 5-2-2 the second. They have two weekend sweeps (Colorado College, Merrimack) to their credit. A year ago UMass Lowell played 18 two-game weekend series and the results were similar night to night. The River Hawks were 10-5-3 on the first night of back-to-back games and 11-5-2 in the second game. The River Hawks had five weekend sweeps. The club played only four "stand alone" game during the season and won all four.
PUNCHING THE CLOCK: Through eighteen games, UMass Lowell has played from behind for just 186:57 and only in portions of six games. UMass Lowell has held the lead for 573:02 of the 1,095-minutes of hockey the team has played this season.
METCALF DEBUT: Freshman Goalie
Garrett Metcalf made his collegiate debut Saturday, December 3rd, at UConn. The Salt Lake City, Utah native made 34 saves as the River Hawks and Huskies battled to a 2-2 tie. Metcalf followed that up with 28 saves and his first collegiate win, 5-1 versus Merrimack December 10.
FOUR GOALIES: The River Hawks have used four goalies this season for the first time as a Division I program.
Sean Cleary,
Christoffer Hernberg Garrett Metcalf and
Tyler Wall have all seen action between the pipes in the first ten weeks of the season. The last time Lowell used four different goaltenders in the same season was 1982-83 when Dana Demole played in 29 games, Kip Manseau, Mike Luitgaarden, and Dave Short all played in at least three. The team also used four goaltenders during the 1976-77 season and used five during the 1979-80 season.
HOME COOKING: There is nothing like home cooking for several of the UMass Lowell River Hawks. Defenseman
Dylan Zink has scored 13 of his 17 points and ten of his twelve assists in just nine home games.
C.J. Smith has scored 11 of his 19 points at home and
Joe Gambardella has five of his eight goals at the Tsongas Center. Goaltender
Tyler Wall's numbers are close, but stronger at home. Wall is 5-2-1 at home with a 1.87 goals against average and a .922 save percentage at the Tsongas Center and 4-2-0, 2.39, .913 on the road.
PROTECTING THE NET: UMass Lowell goalie
Tyler Wall is among the best in Hockey East at keeping the puck out of the net. Wall ranks third in the league in goals against average (2.08) and fourth in save percentage .918. He is in the top dozen in the country in both categories among goalies who have played in at least half of their team's games.
Multi-GOAL GAMES: UMass Lowell forward
C.J. Smith has four multi-goal games this season. That number places Smith second in the country in multi-goal games. Smith had two goal games against Colorado College, Clarkson, Vermont and Notre Dame. Smith has eleven multi-goal games in his career.
GOOD CHEMISTRY: The UMass Lowell line of
C.J. Smith,
Joe Gambardella and
John Edwardh has been red hot. The line has played together in seventeen of the River Hawks' eighteen games this season accounting for 25-goals and 59 points. That's 40.9% of the River Hawks goals and 35.8% of the team's total offensive output. They have been held off the score sheet just once. Since being united for the final regular season game a year ago the trio has 35-goals and 81 points in 24 games.
HOT SHOT JUNIOR: UMass Lowell forward
C.J. Smith leads all juniors playing college hockey in career scoring with 43-goals and 93-points. Mike Szmatula, playing at Minnesota is second with 81 points. T.J. Moore of Holy Cross is second in goals with 37. Smith's 50 assists finds him just three behind Anders Bjork of Notre Dame.
HITTING THE TARGET: UMass Lowell center
Joe Gambardella, with eight goals on just 36 shots on goal, has scored on 22.2% of his shots. A year ago Gambardella had four goals on 37 shots through 18 games, a shooting percentage of 10.8%.
John Edwardh is second among River Hawk players with seven goals on 38 shots, a 18.4% success rate.
LOHIN BEHOLD: UMass Lowell freshman center
Ryan Lohin is heating it up around the net. After picking up just three assists in his first eight games, Lohin has seven points (3g, 4a) in his last ten games.
PENALTY KILLING: UMass Lowell Penalty Kill Unit has stepped it up big time. After struggling early in the season with a man in the box, the PK unit has killed 37 of 38 and 46 of 49 (93.9%) over the last ten games. It had been a bit of a roller coaster before that, twice this season the River Hawks have given up three PPGs in a game.
PUTTING THE "POWER" BACK IN POWER PLAY: UMass Lowell's power play broke an zero-for-19 slump when
Michael Kapla scored in the second period against UConn. Despite those struggles the power play is among the best in the country. The River Hawks have scored 19 goals in 86 man advantage opportunities for a 22.1% success rate, the 10th best in the country and number two in Hockey East. Eight different players have scored with the man advantage;
C.J. Smith,
Jake Kamrass and
Joe Gambardella each have four power play markers. Mattias Göransson has two PP goals. Defenseman
Dylan Zink has seven PP assists.
IRON MAN: UMass Lowell senior defenseman
Michael Kapla has played in 138 consecutive games, the most of any active player in college hockey. Kapla has never missed a game in his collegiate career.
100 Games CLUB: UMass Lowell senior center
Evan Campbell became the fourth member of the team to have played in 100 games when he skated October 15th against Clarkson. Campbell enters tonight's game with 27 goals and 54 points in 112 games.
Michael Kapla (138),
Joe Gambardella (127) and
Dylan Zink (120) have all surpassed the century mark.
C.J. Smith (97) and
Tyler Mueller (95) are closing in on the milestone.
BIG ICE: The visit to the Ledyard Bank Classic at the Thompson Arena puts UMass Lowell back on a larger than standard ice sheet for the fifth and sixth times this season. Previously the River Hawks played weekend series at Colorado College (200 x 100) and Notre Dame (200 x 90). The River Hawks swept the series on the Olympic Sheet at the Broadmoor World Arena, 8-5, 4-0, and followed that with a split of 4-1 games against Notre Dame on the 200 x 90 sheet at the Compton Family Arena. Since
Norm Bazin took over the coaching responsibilities the River Hawks have a record of 31-9-5 on larger than the standard 200 x 85 ice sheets including a record of 10-2-1 on an Olympic sheet and a 16-6-3 record on the 200 x 90 sheet.
CIRCLE OF DOMINANCE: UMass Lowell has dominated in the faceoff circle during the opening ten weeks of the season winning 643 of 1,183 puck drops. The .544 faceoff winning percentage is the sixth best in the nation and third in Hockey East.
Joe Gambardella leads the team winning 211 of 345, .612. Gambardella ranks fifth in Hockey East among centermen who have taken at least 100 draws.
Evan Campbell (138 of 255, .541) and
Ryan Lohin (117 of 223, .525) are also above the .500 mark.
Nick Master (147 of 302, .487) is just under the break-even point.
WHO's NEXT: UMass Lowell will have to wait for today's games to be completed to determine who is next on the schedule. The River Hawks will play either Army West Point or Dartmouth on the second day of the Ledyard Bank Classic. Those two teams square off in the nightcap of Day One action. UMass Lowell has an all-time winning record against both potential opponents. The River Hawks are 19-6-0 against Army West Point and 4-3-0 against Dartmouth. They have not battled either team since a 2005 win, 3-2, against Dartmouth. UML last faced Army West Point in 2001.
QUICK TURN AROUND: There will be very little rest for the weary. After this weekend's action UMass Lowell will be back on the ice Tuesday night at Rensselaer. The River Hawks hold the edge in that all-time series, 12-10-1. UMass Lowell defeated RPI in the 2015-16 season opener, 3-0.
RUDY: Former UMass Lowell defenseman Chad Ruhwedel scored his first NHL goal December 23rd as the Pittsburgh Penguins defeated the New Jersey Devils, 4-1. It was his 35th NHL game spread over five years. He was also a plus-3.
The NHL and UML: Four members of the 2016-17 River Hawks have been drafted by National Hockey League teams. Senior forward
Evan Campbell was drafted by Edmonton on the fifth round in 2013. Three incoming freshmen are also NHL Draft choices. Goalie
Garrett Metcalf was chosen by Anaheim in the sixth round of the 2015 draft. Forward
Ryan Lohin and goalie
Tyler Wall were selected in the 2016 draft. Wall was grabbed by the New York Rangers on the sixth round and Lohin by Tampa Bay in the seventh round.
