Monday, December 28th vs. Clarkson (4:30pm)
THREE RIVERS CLASSIC
(CONSOL ENERGY CENTER; Pittsburgh, Pa.)
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Commercial Radio:
River Hawk Network: (900AM, 1250AM, WCAP 980AM, WSMN 1590AM)
Talent: Bob Ellis (Play by Play); Jim Connelly (Analyst)

Tuesday, December 29th vs. Penn State/Robert Morris (4:30pm/7:30pm)
THREE RIVERS CLASSIC CHAMPIONSHIP/CONSOLATION GAME
(CONSOL ENERGY CENTER; Pittsburgh, Pa.)
Listen Live (Comm) | Live Stats | Buy Tickets
Follow on Twitter: @RiverHawkNation @RiverHawkHockey Tweet #UnitedInBlue

Commercial Radio:
River Hawk Network: (900AM, 1250AM, WCAP 980AM, WSMN 1590AM)
Talent: Bob Ellis (Play by Play); Jim Connelly (Analyst)

QUOTES FROM COACH NORM BAZIN
On Being 10-3-4 at the Break
"I think we are a work in progress.  I've been very pleased with our responses in different situations whether we've lost on Friday and had to respond on Saturday.  I think there is character in the room, I like the way the group dynamic is forming.  I love the fact that we've had a lot of road travel, Duluth, Vermont, Maine and Belfast.  There's been a lot of adversity and we've been able to overcome a lot of it."
 
On Playing in Tournaments
"Whenever you get a chance to win a trophy you have to take those opportunities seriously and this is another opportunity to win a championship as a group.  They are great dress rehearsals for finding out how people react in tough situations and there are always difficult situations with TV and different buildings when you get in big tournaments."
 

SCOUTING THE RIVER HAWKS: UMass Lowell is ranked 8th in both the USCHO and the USA Hockey Magazine polls and has been nationally ranked for 77 consecutive weeks. The River Hawks are 10-3-4 (6-2-3, 1st, HEA) through 17 games. Seventeen different players have scored goals, Senior Adam Chapie leads the team with eight.  C. J. Smith (7g, 10a) and Chapie (8g, 9a) lead the team with 17 points. Senior goalie Kevin Boyle has started all 17 games for the River Hawks and has a 1.74 GAA and a .939 Sv%.   
 
SCOUTING THE GOLDEN KNIGHTS: Clarkson is 7-6-2 (0-5-2, 12th, ECAC) after dropping a 5-2 decision to Cornell on Dec. 5.  The Golden Knights were picked for an 8th place finish in the ECAC Hockey Media Association Poll.  eighteen different players have scored goals for Clarkson with junior A.J. Fossen topping the charts with seven goals.  Sam Vigneault leads the team with 13 points.   Goalie Rob Nichols has started 13 of the team's 14 contests and carries a 3.23 GAA and a .896 Sv% into today's contest.
 
LAST TIME OUT:  UMass Lowell dropped a 2-1 decision to UConn.  Tage Thompson scored the game winner on the power play in the third period.  Senior Adam Chapie had the River Hawks lone goal.  UML goalie Kevin Boyle made 31 saves in the contest.
 
ALL-TIME SERIES VS. CLARKSON:  UMass Lowell and Clarkson have met just 24 times with the River Hawks holding a slight edge at 12-11-1.  UMass Lowell has won four of the last five meetings and is unbeaten in nine straight.  All of Clarkson's 11 wins came in the fifteen clashes between the two teams.   
 
VERSUS PENN STATE/ROBERT MORRIS:  If UMass Lowell and Penn State meet on the second day of the Three Rivers Classic it will be the fifth meeting between the two schools.   The River Hawks have won three of four meetings during the past two years.  If UMass Lowell and Robert Morris meet on the second day of the tournament it will be the first ever meeting between the two teams. 
 
CROSSING THEM OFF THE "TO DO" LIST:  Robert Morris is one of four schools playing Division I hockey that UMass Lowell has never faced and that list could be down to two by season's end.  The River Hawks could face Robert Morris on the second day of the Three Rivers Classic and will face Arizona State January 29th and 30th.  That would leave only Bemidji State and Mercyhurst as teams never to have appeared on the UMass Lowell dance card.
 
IN SEASON TOURNAMENTS:  UMass Lowell has not lost a single in-season tournament game since Norm Bazin took over the coaching reins for the 2011-12 season.  In that period of time the River Hawks have gone 9-0-1, with a shootout victory, in such tournaments and collected the first place honors at the Toyota UConn Classic, the Frozen Holiday Classic, the Mariucci Classic and most recently, earlier this season, at the Friendship Four Tournament in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
 
SHOOTOUT:  When UMass Lowell grabbed the Belpot signifying the Friendship Four Tournament Championship by winning a shootout, 1-0, against Brown.  It was the third time that UMass Lowell had been involved in a tournament shootout and the third time it had won such a shootout.  It was also the second time that Brown was the victim.  Their previous duel was at the 2006-07 Denver Cup and UMass Lowell won the shootout, 3-2, after the game had ended as a 1-1 tie.  The River Hawks also defeated Miami, 1-0, in a shootout in the opening round of the Frontier Classic in Anchorage during the 2003-04 season.
 
ON THE NATIONAL STAGE: UMass Lowell is ranked eighth in both the USCHO and the USA Hockey Magazine Polls.  The River Hawks have been nationally ranked, in either the USCHO or USA Today poll, for 77 consecutive weeks.  The stretch began when UMass Lowell appeared at #20 in the USCHO Poll on January 7, 2013.  Of those 77 weeks more than half, 49, have been spent in the top ten.
 
FIRST PLACE AT THE BREAK:  UMass Lowell, with a conference record of 6-2-3, holds sole possession of first place in Hockey East at the winter break for the first time in the millennium.  A year ago the River Hawks were 7-0-2, but in a first place tie with eventual champion Boston University.
 
TEN WINS BEFORE THE BREAK:  This is only the seventh time in 33 years that the River Hawks picked up their tenth win before the winter break, but it is the third consecutive year in which they have reached that milestone.  It is also the first time that they have had 10-wins before December 1st.  In both the 1986-87 and 2001-02 seasons UMass Lowell had 12-wins at the break marking the best first halves in school history. 
 
RED HOT: When C.J. Smith was held off the score sheet in the River Hawks most recent outing it brought to an end Smith's ten game point scoring streak.  He was the first River Hawk to have a double digit steak since Ed McGrane scored points is 16 consecutive games during the 2002-03 season.  Smith accumulated six goals and ten assists during that stretch and the team has only lost one of the ten games. 
 
FIRST PERIODS:  UMass Lowell has outscored opponents 15-4 in the first period.   The River Hawks are the fifth highest 1st period scoring team in Hockey East trailing just Providence (21), Boston College (20), New Hampshire (19) and Notre Dame (17.)  The four goals allowed in the 1st period is the fewest in Hockey East.  The River Hawks have outscored their opponents by 11 goals in the first period, the third highest goal differential among Hockey East schools. 
 
DID YOU KNOW?:
The UMass Lowell power play is 8-for-27, 29.6%, over its last seven games...C.J. Smith has scored 14 (6g, 8a, 14pts.) of his team leading 17 points on the road this season...Dylan Zink has had a "plus" or "even" rating in all 16 games in which he has appeared this season...eight (2g, 6a 8pts.) of Michael Kapla's ten points this season have come when the score has been tied or the River Hawks trailed...Goalie Kevin Boyle is 5-1-2 with a 1.23 GAA and a .954 Sv% at the Tsongas Center...A.J. White has played in 123 straight UMass Lowell games...Michael Kapla has never missed a game in his UMass Lowell career, he has played in 97 straight games...
 
IN NHL BUILDINGS: UMass Lowell is 5-2-0 when playing in National Hockey League buildings since Norm Bazin took over the coaching duties for the 2011-12 season.  Those numbers include two Hockey East Championship wins at the TD Garden in Boston and a Frozen Four loss at the CONSOL Energy Center in Pittsburgh. 
 
OVERTIME WINNERS:  UMass Lowell's 3-2 win, November 28th, was the River Hawks first overtime win since defeating Maine, 3-2, on December 6, 2014.  Michael Louria had the game winner in that one.  UMass Lowell had gone seven overtimes (0-1-6) without a win.
 
WITH THE EXTRA ATTACKER:  UMass Lowell scored extra attacker goals in consecutive games during the Friendship Four Tournament.  The first, scored by Ryan McGrath, came in a 3-2 overtime win against Northeastern.  It was the first extra attacker goal UMass Lowell had scored in more than a year and the first that had led to a River Hawk win in nearly three years.  The last extra attacker goal came on October 18, 2014 as UML battled back to tie Quinnipiac, 3-3, on a Joe Gambardella goal.  The last time such a scenario led to a win was January 26, 2013 when Riley Wetmore scored to force overtime and Christian Folin scored to give the River Hawks a 5-4 win against Northeastern.  During the Friendship Four Championship Game C. J. Smith scored with the goalie pulled for an extra skater in a game that ended as a tie and a shootout win for the River Hawks.  During the 2008-09 season the River Hawks twice scored extra attacker goals, enroute to a win, in a three game span.
 
DOWN BUT NOT OUT:  UMass Lowell's Friendship Four opening win against Northeastern also marked the first time this season the River Hawks have won a game in which they trailed in the third period.  They last time they won in come-from-behind fashion in the third period was on December 6, 2014 when they trailed Maine 2-1 in the final period.  Tyler Mueller scored at 12:27 of the period to tie it and Michael Louria got the game winner at the 3:57 mark of overtime.
 
POWERING UP: UMass Lowell has scored power play goals in 11 of their 17 games and in nine of their last 11 games.  The man advantage unit is averaging just under a goal a game.  The River Hawks, with the third best PP unit in Hockey East, are 8-1-2 when scoring a power play goal and are 16-for-70 (22.9%) on the season.  Dylan Zink leads the team with four power play goals.
 
PENALTY KILLING:  The River Hawks have the 21st ranked penalty killing unit in the country and second in Hockey East with a 84.1% success rate (53-for-63.)  UMass Lowell was successful in their first 19 man down situations this season.
 
STAYING OUT OF THE BOX: UMass Lowell is the fifth least penalized team in Hockey East averaging just 10.2-penalty minutes per game.  That number places the River Hawks as the 24th least penalized team in the country.  Clarkson averages 10.8-minutes in the box per game ranking the Golden Knights 30th in the country. 
 
CIRCLE OF DOMINANCE: UMass Lowell has the 20th best face-off win percentage in college hockey (51.3%) and the fifth best in Hockey East.  With three centermen winning more often than not, the River Hawks have won 577 of 1,124 puck drops.   Entering today's contest senior center Michael Fallon is the top face-off man winning 54.1% (92-78) of draws.  Freshman Nick Master (136 of 252, 54.0%) is second among River Hawk centers.  Junior Evan Campbell (123-113, 52.1%) is also over the .500 mark.
 
IN THE CLUTCH: Junior defenseman Dylan Zink has become Mr. Clutch over the last two seasons.  Zink leads the River Hawks in clutch goals, goals that either tied the score or gave UMass Lowell the lead, with four this season.  The defenseman topped the "clutch" goal list during the 2014-15 season with seven.  Six of his ten goals put the River Hawks in the lead, one tied the game.  Eleven of his 15 career goals have been defined as "clutch."
 
I CAN SEE FOR MILES AND MILES AND MILES: The UMass Lowell hockey team's trip to Pittsburgh and the Three Rivers Classic is the last significant road trip in a season that finds the River Hawks logging more than 11-thousand miles.  By season's end, the River Hawks will have logged 11,469.56 miles thanks in large part to trips to Minnesota-Duluth, Pittsburgh and Belfast, Northern Ireland.  Most of the travelling, 10,747.76 miles, took place during the first half of the schedule.  The longest individual trip in School history was the 1994 journey to play in the Great Alaska Faceoff Tournament in Fairbanks in 1994.  The round-trip totaled more than eight-thousand miles. 
 
BACK-TO-BACK: UMass Lowell is playing back-to-back games for the ninth time this season.  The River Hawks are 4-2-2 in the first game and 5-1-2 in the second game after losing consecutive games, for the first time this season, to UConn just before the winter break. 
 
KEVIN BOYLING HOT: UMass Lowell goalie Kevin Boyle has given up no more than two goals in 13 of 17 starts.  In eight of those starts he has allowed one goal or less.  Boyle has three shutouts and has allowed three goals or more just four times.  The senior has a 1.74 GAA and a .939 Sv%.  The senior is now tied with Carter Hutton as the school's all time ties leader with ten.
 
UMASS LOWELL VS. OTHER CONFERENCES: The River Hawks have played six non-conference games this season holding a record of 4-1-1.  UMass Lowell has taken three of four from the NCHC after sweeping a two game set from Colorado College and splitting two games with Minnesota-Duluth.  UMass Lowell also defeated ECAC member RPI, 3-0, in the season opener and tied Brown, 5-5.  The River Hawks, still with six non-conference games to play, will continue chipping away at that number on Monday, December 28th, when they face Clarkson at the Three Rivers Classic in Pittsburgh. 
 
IN THE NHL: Five River Hawks are playing in the NHL this season.  Forward Scott Wilson (2011-14) became the latest to join that select group when he skated for the Pittsburgh Penguins on December 21st.  In addition to Wilson, goalie Connor Hellebuyck (2012-14) is protecting the nets for the Winnipeg Jets.  Ron Hainsey (1999-2001) is playing his 3rd season as a member of the Carolina Hurricanes and his 13th NHL campaign.  Goalie Carter Hutton (2006-10) is in his third season with the Nashville Predators and his fourth in the NHL.  Defenseman Christian Folin, 2012-14, is in his second season with the Minnesota Wild.  Folin's younger brother Niklas currently skates for UMass Lowell.
 
ONE IS THE LONELIEST NUMBER: UMass Lowell has been limited to just one goal five times this season but that has resulted in just two losses.  The River Hawks are 1-2-2 when held to just one goal.
 
BY THE SLIMMEST OF MARGINS: Twelve of UMass Lowell's first 15 games this season have been decided by one-goal.  The team is 5-3-4 in those games and 35-21-17 (.596) since Norm Bazin took over the program for the 2011-12 season.     Last year UMass Lowell played only ten games decided by a single goal or less (2-2-4.)  Twice the River Hawks have played 21 one-goal games in a season.  In 2003-04 UMass Lowell went 7-7-7 in such contests and in 2006-07 was 5-9-7.
 
FOOTBALL POWERS TAKE NOTE: Since Norm Bazin arrived at UMass Lowell, the River Hawks are 31-12-5 against schools that play football in the Football Bowl Subdivision.  Those schools include:  Boston College (3-6-2), Connecticut (3-2-0), Massachusetts (10-1-1), Miami (1-0-0), Michigan (1-1-0), Michigan State (2-0-0), Notre Dame (7-1-2), Penn State (3-1-0) and Wisconsin (1-0-0).