Friday, January 8th at New Hampshire (7pm)
(Whittemore Center; Durham, N.H.)
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Commercial Radio:
River Hawk Network: (900AM, 1250AM, WCAP 980AM, WSMN 1590AM)
Talent: Bob Ellis (Play by Play); Jim Connelly (Analyst)

Non-Commericial Radio: WUML 91.5-FM:
Talent: Zack Tretheway (Play by Play); James Shirton (Analyst);
Carter Cotrupi (Producer/Engineer)

SCOUTING THE RIVER HAWKS: UMass Lowell is ranked 10th in both the USCHO and the USA Hockey Magazine polls and has been nationally ranked for 80 consecutive weeks. The River Hawks are 11-4-4 (6-2-3, 1st, HEA) through 19 games. Seventeen different players have scored goals, Senior Adam Chapie leads the team with nine.  C. J. Smith (8g, 11a) and Chapie (9g, 10a) lead the team with 19 points. Senior goalie Kevin Boyle has started all 19 games for the River Hawks and has a 1.83 GAA and a .936 Sv%.   
 
SCOUTING THE WILDCATS: New Hampshire is 8-7-4 (2-1-4, 7th, HEA) after an overtime loss to Vermont last Saturday night.  The Wildcats were picked for a sixth place finish in the Hockey East Pre-season Coaches' Poll.  Sixteen different players have scored goals for New Hampshire.  Andrew Poturalski leads the team with 18 goals and 36 points.  Poturalski is one of three players with ten or more goals.  Goalie Daniel Tirone has started 17 of the team's 19 contests and carries a 3.43 GAA and a .895 Sv% into tonight's contest.
 
LAST TIME OUT:  UMass Lowell lost to Robert Morris, 5-3, in the Championship Game of the Three Rivers Classic in Pittsburgh.  The River Hawks got goals from Chris Forney, Joe Gambardella and Ryan McGrath in building a 3-1 lead in that contest.  UML goalie Kevin Boyle made 24 saves in the loss.
 
ALL-TIME SERIES VS. NEW HAMPSHIRE:  This is the 112th meeting between UMass Lowell and New Hampshire.  The Wildcats lead the series 58-38-15, but the River Hawks have won the last six contests including three by shutout.  The first ever meeting between the two clubs, Dec. 6, 1983, ended in a 3-3 tie when Danny Craig's second goal of the game knotted the score with nine-seconds left in the third period.  The two teams have met in the Hockey East Tournament in seven different seasons with UMass Lowell holding a 6-5-0 edge.  The River Hawks have also won the lone NCAA tournament game played between the two.
 
ROAD WARRIORS:  UMass Lowell is in the midst of playing 12 of 16 games away from the Tsongas Center.  That included four "neutral site" games.  The River Hawks at 6-3-1 in the first nine road/neutral games in that stretch.  They are 2-0-2 at home during that period.  UMass Lowell will play nine of its final 13 regular season games at home.
 
LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION:  These two teams have played each other in nine different buildings, matching the greatest number of venues for UMass Lowell against any one opponent.  UMass Lowell and UNH have faced off at Tully Forum (Billerica, MA), Snively Arena (Durham, NH), Boston Garden (Boston, MA),
JFK Coliseum (Manchester, NH), Alfond Arena (Orono, ME), Whittemore Center (Durham, NH), Tsongas Arena (Lowell, MA), FleetCenter/TD Garden (Boston, MA) and the Verizon Wireless Arena (Manchester, NH.)  UMass Lowell has also played Maine and Boston College in nine different buildings.
 
ON THE NATIONAL STAGE: UMass Lowell is ranked tenth 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 80 consecutive weeks.  The stretch began when UMass Lowell appeared at #20 in the USCHO Poll on January 7, 2013.  Of those 80 weeks more than half, 52, have been spent in the top ten.
 
STAND ALONE: This is just the second stand-alone game that UMass Lowell has played this season.  The first stand-alone game was the season opener, a 3-0 victory against RPI.  The club has played nine two-game weekend series this season.  The River Hawks are 5-2-2 on the first night of back-to-back games and 5-2-2 in the second game.  The River Hawks have three weekend sweeps to their credit.
 
100 STRAIGHT AND COUNTING:  UMass Lowell defenseman Michael Kapla will, tonight, play his 100th game in a River Hawk uniform.  Kapla, with 12 goals and 43 assists for 55 points, has never missed a game in his collegiate career.  A.J. White who has played 132 games will be playing in his 126th in a row.
 
IN EVERY GAME:  When UMass Lowell lost to Robert Morris 5-3, it was the first time all season that the River Hawks have trailed two goals at any point in a game.
 
IN SEASON TOURNAMENTS:  When UMass Lowell lost to Robert Morris in the Championship Game of the Three Rivers Classic it was the first in-season tournament game loss since Norm Bazin took over the coaching reins for the 2011-12 season.  In that period of time the River Hawks have now gone 10-1-1, with a shootout victory, in such tournaments.  They have 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.
 
IN NHL BUILDINGS: UMass Lowell is 6-3-0 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 win and two losses at the CONSOL Energy Center in Pittsburgh. 
 
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.  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: C.J. Smith continues to pace the River Hawk offense scoring 18 points in his last 13 games.  That includes a ten game scoring streak, the first double digit scoring streak by a UMass Lowell player 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. 
 
KEVIN BOYLING HOT: UMass Lowell goalie Kevin Boyle has given up no more than two goals in 14 of 19 starts.  In nine of those starts he has allowed one goal or less.  Boyle has four shutouts and has allowed three goals or more just five times.  The senior has a 1.83 GAA and a .936 Sv%.  His career .654 winning percentage is second among UML Division I goalies.  He trails only Connor Hellebuyck who had a .750 winning percentage.
 
FIRST PERIODS:  UMass Lowell has outscored opponents 17-5 in the first period.   The River Hawks are the fifth highest 1st period scoring team in Hockey East trailing just Providence (24), New Hampshire (24), Boston College (22) and Notre Dame (19).   The five goals allowed in the 1st period is the fewest in Hockey East.  The River Hawks have outscored their opponents by 12 goals in the first period, the third highest goal differential among Hockey East schools. 
 
DID YOU KNOW?:
The UMass Lowell power play is 10-for-37, 27.0%, over its last nine games...C.J. Smith has scored 16 (7g, 9a, 16pts.) of his team leading 19 points on the road this season...Dylan Zink had a "plus" or "even" rating in 26 straight games, including last season, prior to going -1 in UML's loss to Robert Morris... Ten (2g, 8a 10pts.) of Michael Kapla's 13 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 125 straight UMass Lowell games...Michael Kapla has never missed a game in his UMass Lowell career, he has played in 99 straight games... UMass Lowell has been limited to just one goal five times this season but that has resulted in just two losses.
 
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.
 
PENALTY KILLING:  The River Hawks have the 25th ranked penalty killing unit in the country and third in Hockey East with a 83.3% success rate (60-for-72.)  UMass Lowell was successful in their first 19 man down situations this season.
 
POWERING UP: UMass Lowell has scored power play goals in 13 of their 19 games and in 11 of their last 13 games.  The man advantage unit is averaging just under a goal a game.  The River Hawks, with the second best PP unit in Hockey East, are 9-2-2 when scoring a power play goal and are 18-for-80 (22.5%) on the season.  Dylan Zink leads the team with four power play goals.
 
STAYING OUT OF THE BOX: UMass Lowell is the fourth least penalized team in Hockey East averaging just 10.1-penalty minutes per game.  That number places the River Hawks as the 24th least penalized team in the country.  New Hampshire averages 7.9-minutes in the box per game ranking the Wildcats sixth in the country. 

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.  The 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.
 
CIRCLE OF DOMINANCE: UMass Lowell has the 20th best face-off win percentage in college hockey (51.4%) and the fifth best in Hockey East.  With three centermen winning more often than not, the River Hawks have won 648 of 1,261 puck drops.   Entering tonight's contest senior center Michael Fallon is the top face-off man winning 54.1% (100-85) of draws.  Freshman Nick Master (160 of 199, 53.5%) is second among River Hawk centers.  Junior Evan Campbell (142-125, 53.2%) 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 recent trip to Pittsburgh and the Three Rivers Classic was the last significant road trip in a season that has found 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. 
 
UMASS LOWELL VS. OTHER CONFERENCES: The River Hawks have played seven non-conference games this season holding a record of 5-2-1.  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 members RPI, 3-0, in the season opener and Clarkson and tied Brown, 5-5.   UMass Lowell lost its only contest against an AHA school when it dropped a 5-3 decision to Robert Morris.
 
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.
 
BY THE SLIMMEST OF MARGINS: Twelve of UMass Lowell's first 18 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.
 
PROTECTING THE LEAD: Since Norm Bazin took over the coaching reins at UMass Lowell, the River Hawks are 85-5-6 when leading after two-periods.  They are also 18-10-5 when the score is tied after two periods.  UMass Lowell is 35-21-17 in games decided by one goal.  Also, during that time period the River Hawks are 10-6-14 in games decided in overtime.  When UMass Lowell has a two-goal lead at any point in the game they are 88-4-2 and 40-0-2 at the Tsongas Center.
 
WHO'S HOT:
C. J. Smith  Points in 12 of last 13 games (7g, 11a, 18pts.)
Adam Chapie  Points in 11 of last 13 games (7g, 9a, 16pts.)
Joe Gambardella  Points in 9 of last 10 games (3g, 8a, 11pts.)
Dylan Zink  Points in 6 of last 7 games (2g, 6a, 8pts.)
Michael Kapla  Assists in 6 of last 7 games (0g, 9a, 9pts.)
 
RIVER HAWK AWARDS:
Kevin Boyle
HEA Defensive Player of the Week                Oct. 19th
(2GP, 2-0-0, 1.50 GAA, .929 Sv%)
HEA Defensive Player of the Week                Nov 16th
(2GP, 2-0-0, 0.50 GAA, .985 Sv%)
Nick Master
HEA Rookie of the Week                                 Nov. 23rd
(2GP, 2g, 0a, 2pts., 2 Clutch Goals, GWG)
Dylan Zink
HEA Defensive Player of the Week                Nov. 30th
(2GP, 2g, 1a, 3pts., 2 Clutch Goals, GWG, Shootout winner)
Adam Chapie
All Tournament Team-Three Rivers Classic    Dec. 29th
(2GP, 1g, 1a, 2pts.)
Michael Kapla
All Tournament Team-Three Rivers Classic    Dec. 29th
(2GP, 0g, 3a, 3pts.)