Friday, November 4th vs. Vermont (7:15pm)
(Tsongas Center; Lowell, Mass.)
GOBBLE UP HUNGER
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Game Notes | https://youtu.be/noiYP1yF6QsVideo Preview | Parking Information
Follow on Twitter: @RiverHawkNation @RiverHawkHockey
Commercial Radio:
River Hawk Network: (WCAP 980AM/UMass Lowell Gameday App)
Talent: Bob Ellis (Play by Play); Jim Connelly (Analyst)
Non-Commercial Radio: (WUML 91.5 FM)
Talent: Alex Salucco (Play by Play); Brianne Dillon (Analyst)
Saturday, November 5th vs. Vermont (7pm)
(Tsongas Center; Lowell, Mass.)
VETERAN APPRECIATION NIGHT | COUNTRY FEST NIGHT
Watch Live ($) | Listen Live | Live Stats | Buy Tickets
Parking Information | Game Notes
Follow on Twitter: @RiverHawkNation @RiverHawkHockey
Commercial Radio:
River Hawk Network: (WCAP 980AM/UMass Lowell Gameday App)
Talent: Bob Ellis (Play by Play); Jim Connelly (Analyst)
Non-Commercial Radio: (WUML 91.5 FM)
Talent: Alex Salucco (Play by Play); Carter Cotrupi (Analyst)
SCOUTING THE RIVER HAWKS: UMass Lowell, with a 4-2-2 record, is ranked 6th in the USA Hockey Magazine poll and 7th in the USCHO poll. 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. The team does return its top two scorers in forwards CJ Smith (39-points) and
Joe Gambardella (37-points). That duo leads the 2016-17 edition of the River Hawks in scoring. Gambardella tops the charts with five goals and 12-points, Smith is second with five goals and 11-points. The four goalies, including two freshmen, entered this season with a combined 99-minutes of collegiate experience. Freshman
Tyler Wall leads the foursome with a 1.92 GAA and a .927 save percentage.
SCOUTING THE CATAMOUNTS: Vermont, with a 4-1-1 record, was picked to finish eighth in the Hockey East Coaches' pre-season poll. The Catamounts have won three straight and swept a pair of games last weekend shutting out Michigan, 3-0, and beating Northeastern, 3-2. Thirteen different players have scored goals; seven have scored more than one. Craig Puffer leads the team with four goals and seven points. Freshman Stefanos Lekkas has had the majority of the time between the pipes. He has a 1.50 GAA and a .942 Save Percentage. He was named the Hockey East Rookie of the Week after making 45 saves on 47 shots last weekend.
ALL-TIME SERIES VS. VERMONT: This is the 47th meeting between the two schools in a series that dates back to 1972. UMass Lowell leads the all-time series, 23-16-7. The River Hawks have won three in a row and are undefeated in the last six. Since Vermont joined Hockey East for the 2005-06 season, UMass Lowell has held a 20-10-7 edge in play. Twenty-two of the 37 games have been decided by one goal or less. The River Hawks have won five of six Hockey East tournament meetings between the two and have eliminated Vermont from the post season on three occasions.
LAST SEASON: UMass Lowell swept the season series from Vermont a year ago winning 5-3 and 1-0 at the Gutterson Field House in Burlington. Five of the six goals scored that weekend for UMass Lowell have since graduated.
OVERTIME...?: When UMass Lowell and Vermont meet, overtime is not our of the question. Far from it, ten of the last 26 games between the two teams have included bonus time. Those last ten OT games have been evenly split 2-2-6.
ONE GOAL COULD BE ENOUGH: UMass Lowell has won eleven 1-0 games in its 49-plus years of hockey. Three of those 1-0 wins have come against Vermont in the last seven years, including the last time the two met, November 7, 2015.
Adam Chapie had the game's only goal. Vermont also had a 1-0 win against the River Hawks in 2008.
ON THE NATIONAL STAGE: UMass Lowell has been nationally ranked, in either the USCHO or USA Today poll, for 95 consecutive weeks. The stretch began when UMass Lowell appeared at #20 in the USCHO Poll on January 7, 2013. Of those 95 weeks more than half, 62, have been spent in the top ten.
AMONG THE NATIONAL LEADERS: UMass Lowell forwards
Joe Gambardella and
C.J. Smith rank in the top ten in scoring nationally. Gambardella, with 12 points (5g, 7a) is fifth in the nation; Smith is seventh with 11 points (5g, 6a). The duo ranks two and three among Hockey East players. Defenseman Mattias Göransson is first among Hockey East defensemen and fifth in the nation in scoring among defensemen with 8 points (3g, 5a).
GOOD CHEMISTRY: The UMass Lowell line of
C.J. Smith,
Joe Gambardella and
John Edwardh have been red hot. The line has played together in seven of the River Hawks eight games this season accounting for 13-goals and 29 points. 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 23-goals and 51 points in 14 games.
LAST WEEKEND: The River Hawks split a pair of games last weekend at Omaha. After dropping the Friday night opener, UMass Lowell defeated Omaha on Saturday night, 4-2.
Jake Kamrass had two goals during the weekend, including one on a penalty shot.
HOCKEY EAST OPENERS: Tonight's meeting with Vermont is the Hockey East Conference season opener for UMass Lowell. The River Hawks are 15-12-5 in conference openers and 2-0-2 over the last four years in league game number one. Last year UMass Lowell and Merrimack played to a 1-1 tie in the HEA season opener. UMass Lowell and Vermont have met only once in the Hockey East opener; that game, at the
Tsongas Arena, to open the 2012-13 season ended in a 1-1 tie.
CIRCLE OF DOMINANCE: UMass Lowell has dominated in the faceoff circle during the opening four weeks of the season winning 321 of 565 puck drops. The .568 faceoff winning percentage is the fourth best in the nation, second among teams that have played more than two games and tops in Hockey East.
Joe Gambardella leads the team winning 113 of 172, .657. Gambardella ranks second in Hockey East and third in the nation among centermen who have taken at least 100 draws.
Ryan Lohin (55 of 101, .545),
Evan Campbell (54 of 102, .529) and
Nick Master (82 of 163, .503) are also above the .500 mark.
PENALTY SHOT: Forward
Jake Kamrass scored on a penalty shot Saturday night, October 29th, at Omaha. The goal broke a 1-1 tie as UMass Lowell defeated Omaha 4-2. It was the first successful penalty shot by a River Hawk since
Adam Chapie scored on a penalty shot against Merrimack February 1, 2014.
50th SEASON OF UMASS LOWELL HOCKEY: This is the 50th season of hockey at UMass Lowell. The varsity program began with the 1967-68 season. That first team went 7-7-1. After winning three Division II National Championships the program moved to Division I as an Independent for the 1983-84 season and joined Hockey East for its inaugural season of 1984-85. The River Hawks are 823-691-113 all time with a winning percentage of .540.
HONORING THE PAST: UMass Lowell will honor and introduce the second All-Decade team, covering the 1977-87 era, Friday night during the first intermission. The team, chosen through fan voting, features goalie Brian Doyle, defensemen Paul Lohnes and Paul Ames and forwards Mike Carr, Craig MacTavish and Jon Morris. Carr is the school's all-time leading scorer while Morris is Hockey East's all-time leading scorer.
SEASON LONG CELEBRATION: UMass Lowell will celebrate the 50th year of River Hawk hockey throughout the season with a variety of promotions and events. The celebration will be highlighted by the naming of five All-Era teams as selected by the fans in on-line voting.
THREE IN A ROW..? NOPE!: UMass Lowell avoided a three-game losing streak when it defeated Omaha on Saturday night, 4-2. The River Hawks have not had a three-game losing streak in more than a year. The last time the team experienced a losing streak as long as three games was in January of 2015 when it lost four in a row. UMass Lowell lost two in a row just twice during the 2015-16 season.
POWER PLAY: UMass Lowell's power play is among the best in the country. The River Hawks have scored 11 goals in 44 man advantage opportunities for a 25% success rate, the fourth best in the country. Six different players have scored with the man advantage;
C.J. Smith has found the back of the net four times,
Joe Gambardella and Mattias Goransson have two PP goals each.
PENALTY KILLING WOES: UMass Lowell penalty kill has been on a roller coaster ride. After killing off 16 straight power plays, the River Hawks have now given up seven goals in the last 15 shorthanded situations over a three game span. Omaha scored five times with the man advantage during last weekend. Twice this season the River Hawks have given up three PPGs in a game. Prior to this season UMass Lowell had not given up three power play goals in a game in more than a year. The last time it had happened was in a 7-3 loss to Providence in January of 2015.
GETTING OFFENSE FROM THE DEFENSE: UMass Lowell has the sixth highest scoring defense corps in the country. The River Hawks blue liners have combined for six goals and 24 points. Those numbers are also the second best in Hockey East.
WHO's NEXT: Next weekend the River Hawks have a home-and-home series with Maine. They visit the Alfond Arena in Orono on Friday Night and host the Black Bears Sunday afternoon. Maine leads the all-time series 78-36-6, but the River Hawks have won the last four and are 6-1-1 in the last eight.
QUICK START: UMass Lowell has scored 30 goals this season, nearly half of them have come in the first five-minutes of a period. The River Hawks have scored 14 goals in the first five-minutes of a period, the most in the country. This year, UMass Lowell has scored goals in the first five minutes of 13 of 24 periods and ten of the last Seventeen. The River Hawks have taken a 1-0 lead in the first five minutes in seven of the eight games they have played this year.
NON-CONFERENCE, NO PROBLEM: UMass Lowell has more than held its own in non-conference play over the last five-plus years. During that period of time the River Hawks have gone 41-15-5 (.720) against schools from other conferences. A year ago UMass Lowell was 9-3-1 against non-conference opponents including a 3-1-1 record against NCHC schools. The River Hawks chalked up wins against Colorado College and Minnesota Duluth last year and show a 2-0-2 record this season against those same opponents and split a two game series with Omaha. UMass Lowell is 8-3-2 all-time against teams representing the NCHC, but only 21-34-4 all-time against teams currently in the NCHC.
TWO SHORTIES; A LONG TIME IN COMING: When UMass Lowell scored a pair of short-handed goals in the October 14th 5-2 win against St. Lawrence it was the first time in nearly eight years that the River Hawks had more than one short-handed goal in a game. The last time it happened was on February 13, 2009 when Nick Schaus and Nick Monroe scored short-handed in a 6-0 victory at Boston College.
UNFORTUNATE FIRST: When UMass Lowell lost, on Oct. 15, to Clarkson, 4-3, it was the first time since
Norm Bazin became the head coach that the River Hawks lost a home game at the
Tsongas Center in which they held a two-goal lead at any point in the contest. During that five-plus year stretch the River Hawks are 50-1-3 at home when holding a two-goal at any point in the game.
GOOD START: The five game unbeaten streak to start the season was the school's second longest unbeaten streak at the start a season. The 3-0-2 start matched both 1995-96 and last year's start. Only the 5-0-1 start in 1993-94 saw the team go deeper into the season without suffering its first loss.
PUNCHING THE CLOCK: Through eight games, UMass Lowell has played from behind for just 66:52 and only in portions of three games. UMass Lowell has held the lead for 316:44 of the 490-minutes of hockey the team has played this season.
WHEN RANKED TEAMS VISIT: UMass Lowell is unbeaten, at the
Tsongas Center, in their last thirteen games (8-0-5) against nationally ranked teams. The streak is their longest since the USCHO poll began in 1997. Their last home loss to a ranked team on Feb. 6, 2015, when they were beaten by third ranked BU, 5-2. The River Hawks opened this season with two ties against fifth ranked Minnesota Duluth and knocked off no. 12 St. Lawrence last Friday night, 5-2.
WEIGHING IN: UMass Lowell is the eighth biggest team in the nation based on weight. The River Hawks tip the scales at 193.67 pounds. Western Michigan at 198.63 pounds is the heaviest team in the country.
BIG ICE: The October 14-15 visit to Colorado College was the first time this year that UMass Lowell has played on an Olympic sized sheet of ice, 200 x 100. The River Hawks swept the series, 8-5, 4-0. Since
Norm Bazin took over the coaching responsibilities "big ice" has not been an issue. The River Hawks have a record of 30-8-5 on larger than the standard 200 x 85 ice sheets including a record of 12-2-1 on an Olympic sheet.
IRON MAN: UMass Lowell senior defenseman
Michael Kapla has played in 128 consecutive games, the most of any active player in college hockey. Kapla has never missed a game in his collegiate career.
102 GAMES AND COUNTING: UMass Lowell senior center
Evan Campbell became the fourth member of the River Hawk team to have played in 100 games when he skated October 15th against Clarkson. Campbell enters tonight's game with 26 goals and 52 points in 102 games.
Michael Kapla (128),
Joe Gambardella (117) and
Dylan Zink (110) have all surpassed the century mark.
FRESHMEN: Eight freshmen have made their River Hawk debut during the first four weekends of the new season.
Kenny Hausinger, Mattias Göransson,
Guillaume Leclerc and
Ryan Lohin all pulled on the River Hawk sweater for the season opener. Göransson made it into the box score with a goal and an assist. Two more made their debut the following night as
James Winkler played on the wing and
Tyler Wall made 40 saves in nets. A seventh freshman made his debut two weeks ago when
Colin O'Neill skated against Colorado College.
Nick Marin was added to the list last Saturday at Omaha.
FIVE COUNTRIES/16 STATES: UMass Lowell's roster reflects a dramatic growth in the points of origin from which people have come to play college hockey. The roster finds players from five different countries and 16 different states. Both numbers are the highest in college hockey. Twenty-one of the River Hawks 30 players were born in the United States, five hail from Canada, two are from Sweden and one each from Finland and France. Massachusetts and Pennsylvania top the list of states with three players each calling those states home.
BACK-TO-BACK: UMass Lowell is playing back to back games for the fifth time this season. The River Hawks are 2-1-1 on the first night and 2-1-1 the second. They have one weekend sweep 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.
