Watch | Listen | Stats | Notes


The trophy awarded the UMass Lowell hockey team for earning the top spot in the Hockey East regular season is nowhere to be seen as players go through their daily preparations for practice.  The hardware is not even in the building.
 
“Intensity,” says UMass Lowell hockey Coach Norm Bazin.  “It's about intensity; it's about being a man in every single situation, about concentrating on the things that you can control.”
 
The focus is on the future, not the past.
 
The future starts Thursday at the Tsongas Center when the top seeded River Hawks (22-10-2 / 16-9-2 34 pts.) host the number 8 seed Maine (11-17-8 / 7-12-8 22 pts.) in the best-of-three quarterfinal round of the 2013 Hockey East Tournament.  The games are scheduled for Thursday (7:00pm), Friday (7:00pm) and, if necessary, Sunday (4:00pm).
 
UMass Lowell is ranked sixth in the nation in both the USCHO and the USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine polls.  Maine is not ranked.
 
Tickets are available at the Tsongas Center box office: $18 dollars for adults and $14 for seniors (65+) and children (12 and under).  UMass Lowell students receive free admission by scanning their ID, paid for by the Division of Student Affairs.
 
Last weekend UMass Lowell won its first ever Hockey East regular season championship and Maine clinched a playoff spot.  They earned those hard won positions with outstanding second halves of the season.
 
“You've got the two best second half teams playing each other,” says Bazin.  “It should provide for a great weekend of hockey.”
 
The River Hawks went into the holiday break in eighth place in Hockey east with a 3-6-1 league record, 6-7-1 overall.  They went 16-3-1 the rest of the way including 13-3-1 in league play.
 
The Black Bears were sitting in tenth place, 1-7-2 / 2-11-2, at the break and finished up going 6-5-6 / 9-6-6 after the holidays.
 
Maine took two-of-three one-goal games from UMass Lowell during the season. 
 
“They're going to try to slow down the game,” says Bazin.  “It's our job to push the pace and play our style of hockey.”
 
In hockey and especially in the Hockey East playoffs what separates winners from losers is a very thin line.
 
“It's execution, it's puck luck,” says Bazin.  “The playoff season comes down to urgency, it comes down to second and third effort, it comes down to execution on special teams, it comes down to net front stick battles.  It's just like the regular season, but with more intensity.”
 
For senior captain Riley Wetmore (Swanton, Vt.) it comes down to “urgency.”
 
“It's one game at a time, you don't look at it as a series,” says Wetmore.  “You've got to bear down; the urgency has got to be there.  We have to get to pucks first; we have to take the goalie's eyes away.”
 
“It takes a team effort; it takes four lines,” says Wetmore.  “You've got to block shots, get the puck out (of the defensive zone); not try to do the fancy things.  We need to take pride in the little details.”
 
            History suggests the River Hawks will have their hands full, they have not faired well against Maine during the regular season and post season has been even more frustrating.  Maine holds a 77-35-3 edge in the all time series.  UMass Lowell has won just one of fifteen playoff games. Eight times Maine has ended the River Hawks Hockey East playoff run.
 
“I don't look at history too much,” says Bazin.  “Every year it's a different group, a different chemistry.  We just want to play the best opponents possible every game and hopefully we're playing for another month.”
 
            It is UMass Lowell's 25^th visit to the Hockey East playoffs in 29 years.  Despite their historic woes at the hands of Maine, the River Hawks have made it to the semifinals thirteen times in the past, the fifth most in the conference.
 
Grabbing first place during the regular season authored a new chapter in Hockey East history and the hockey club isn't planning to stop writing any time soon.