SCOUTING THE RIVER HAWKS: UMass Lowell is ranked 8th in both the USCHO and the USA Hockey Magazine polls.  The River Hawks are 24-9-5 through 38 games and were 12-6-4 in conference play which earned the River Hawks the fourth seed in the Hockey East Tournament. UMass Lowell defeated Boston University in the quarterfinals two-games to one and knocked off Providence, 2-1, in triple overtime before losing the Championship Game to Northeastern, 3-2.  Nineteen different players have scored goals, four are in double digits; C. J. Smith tops the leader board 17 goals and 38 points.  Goalie Kevin Boyle has started 37 of 38 games and has a 1.77 GAA and a .935 Sv%.  
 
SCOUTING THE BULLDOGS: Yale University is 19-8-4 and finished second in the ECAC.  The Bulldogs dropped their best-of-three series against Dartmouth two-games to none, 4-3, 2-1.  Eighteen different players on the roster have scored goals, two are in double digits.  John Hayden leads the team with 16 goals, Joe Snively tops the points chart with 28.  Goalie Alex Lyon carries a nation's best 1.59 GAA and a .938 save percentage into tonight's contest. 
 
LAST WEEKEND: UMass Lowell made it to the Hockey East Championship Game for the fourth consecutive season, only the fourth team to do so, but was defeated by Northeastern.  Zach Aston-Reese scored in the third period to break a 2-2 tie.  The River Hawks punched their ticket to the final beating Providence, 2-1, in triple overtime.  A. J. White had the game winner at 12:27 of the third overtime period.  Kevin Boyle had a school Division I record 58 saves in the contest.  It is second all-time behind Mike Geragosian's 62 saves in the 1972 ECAC Division II playoffs against Vermont.  At 112-minutes, 26-seconds it was the longest Hockey East semifinal game and longest game in UMass Lowell hockey history.
 
ALL-TIME SERIES VS. YALE:  This is only the 13th meeting between the two schools, in a series that dates back to 1982, and the first since the two met in the semifinal game of the 2013 Frozen Four in Pittsburgh.  The River Hawks holds the edge in the all-time series, 8-4-0.  The Bulldogs won the lone post season match up, 3-2 in overtime, in the national semifinal.   
 
IN THE NCAA TOURNAMENT:  UMass Lowell is making its seventh appearance in the NCAA Division I Championship Tournament and its 12th NCAA appearance all time.  UMass Lowell has made just one visit to the Frozen Four; that was in 2013.  The River Hawks have a 6-6-1 record in NCAA Division I Tournament play and a 17-9-1 record, including five Division II Tournament appearances.  It is the fourth time in the five years since Norm Bazin was named to lead the River Hawk hockey program that the school has been invited to the national tournament. As a Division II program UMass Lowell captured the national title in 1979, 81 and 1982.
 
THE REGIONALS:   As a Division I program UMass Lowell has advanced to the regional final five times.  The River Hawks defeated Michigan State in the first game of the regionals, in East Lansing, Mich., in 1994 and in 1996.  UMass Lowell defeated Miami in overtime, 4-3, in the 2012 tournament, Wisconsin, 6-1, in the 2013 tournament in Manchester, N.H. and Minnesota State, 2-1, in the 2014 Tournament in Worcester, Mass. UMass Lowell earned a trip to the Frozen Four by winning the 2013 NCAA Northeast Regional in Manchester, N.H. with victories against Wisconsin and New Hampshire.
 
THE TOURNAMENT NORM:  Since Norm Bazin took over behind the bench, UMass Lowell is 19-9-0 in the post season, including both the Hockey East and NCAA Tournament play.  Bazin is 4-3-0 in the NCAA Tournament and 15-6-0 in the HEA Tournament.  The River Hawks won the Hockey East Tournament in both 2013 and 2014 and reached the NCAA Frozen Four in 2013.
 
COACHING THE HOME TEAM: UMass Lowell Coach Norm Bazin is one of nine coaches in the NCAA Tournament who are coaching at their Alma Mater.  Bazin played for Umass Lowell 1990-94 and played in the 1994 NCAA Tournament.  Yale Coach Keith Allain is also coaching where he played.
 
VERSUS TOURNAMENT TEAMS: UMass Lowell is 9-6-2 against teams in the 2016 NCAA Tournament.  Six River Hawk opponents made the tournament including Hockey East rivals Boston College (1-1-0), Boston University (3-1-0), Providence (2-1-0), Notre Dame (1-0-1) and Northeastern (1-1-1).  UMass Lowell was also 1-1-0 against Minnesota-Duluth.
 
NON-CONFERENCE UMASS LOWELL: The River Hawks wrapped up their non-conference schedule with a 9-2-1 record.  UMass Lowell went 2-0-1 against schools from the ECAC.  They defeated RPI, 3-0, in the season opener and Clarkson, 3-0, at the Three Rivers Classic and tied Brown, 5-5, in the Championship Game of the Friendship Four Tournament.  UMass Lowell took the Belpot with a 1-0 shootout win.  The River Hawks have also 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 split two games with Atlantic Conference teams, losing to Robert Morris, 5-3, and defeating AIC, 5-4.  The River Hawks defeated Massachusetts, 4-2, in a non-conference meeting and swept a weekend series from Division I Independent, Arizona State.
 
ON THE NATIONAL STAGE: UMass Lowell is ranked 8th 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 90 consecutive weeks.  The stretch began when UMass Lowell appeared at #20 in the USCHO Poll on January 7, 2013.  Of those 90 weeks more than half, 57, have been spent in the top ten.
 
FIVE YEAR RUN: For the first time in UMass Lowell's Division I hockey history the team has won 20 games or more in five consecutive seasons.  The five straight 20-win seasons match the Division II run of the ULowell Chiefs who won 20-plus games per season from 1978-79 through the 1982-83.  UMass Lowell has averaged more than 24 wins per season during this five year stretch.  The hockey program has 14 20-win seasons in their history.
 
SENIOR CLASS:  The current UMass Lowell senior class is tied as the winningest senior class in the school's Division I hockey history.  Entering tonight's contest, the senior group has a record of 99-43-17, a .676 winning percentage.  The 2015 class also won 99 games.  That class went 99-47-13, .664.
 
SENIOR SUCCESS:  This UMass Lowell senior class is the winningest in Hockey East and has accumulated the fourth most wins in the country over the four year period.  With 99 wins UMass Lowell trails only Quinnipiac (110), North Dakota (106) and Minnesota State (101).  Among Hockey East schools Boston College is second with 97 and Providence is third with 91.
 
JOEY PLAYOFFS:  UMass Lowell junior center Joe Gambardella has scored 27 goals in 105 games as a River Hawk, but seven of those goals have come in just fourteen post season games.  He also has five assists for 12 points in 14 post season games.
 
SETTING RECORDS: When UMass Lowell goalie Kevin Boyle shutout Boston University Saturday night, March 12, 2016, it was his school record seventh shutout of the season.  The seven shutouts moves Boyle ahead of Connor Hellebuyck, who had six shutouts in both 2012-13 and 2013-14, and Cam McCormick who turned in six blank sheets in 2001-02.  Furthermore Boyle has given up no more than two goals in five straight and 26 of 35 starts.  In 16 of those starts he has allowed one goal or less.  The senior has a 1.73 GAA, third best in the country, and an third in the nation .937 Sv%.  His UMass Lowell career .664 winning percentage is second among UML Division I goalies.  He trails only Connor Hellebuyck who had a .750 winning percentage.  His 42 wins is fourth most during the Division I era and seventh all-time.
 
AMONG THE NATION'S BEST:  UMass Lowell is the second best defensive team in the country.  That's what the stats say.  The River Hawks have allowed 1.82 goals per game, just a couple of ticks behind Yale (1.74.)
 
TIGHTENING UP THE D:  Through 38 games, UMass Lowell has allowed 27 fewer goals than it did a year ago.  That translates to .71 goals per game.  A year ago the River Hawks had a 2.53 GAA at this point in the season.  The team carries a 1.82 GAA into tonight's game.
 
BACK-TO-BACK: With luck UMass Lowell is playing its 18th two-game weekend series this season.  The River Hawks are 9-5-3 on the first night of back-to-back games and 11-4-2 in the second game.  The River Hawks have five weekend sweeps to their credit. The club has played only four "stand alone" game this season and won all four.  
 
MODEL OF CONSISTENCY:  UMass Lowell has been a model of consistency, losing back-to-back games only twice this season.   The River Hawks have only had two losing streaks of three or more games since Norm Bazin took over behind the bench for the 2011-12 season and that has happened just twice.
 
VERSUS RANKED TEAMS AT THE TSONGAS: UMass Lowell is 7-0-3 in their last ten at home against ranked teams. This is their longest streak on record since the USCHO poll started in 1998.
 
FREINDLY CONFINES: UMass Lowell has the sixth best home winning percentage in the nation.  The River Hawks are 14-2-3 (.816) at home.  Their 1.37 GAA at home leads the nation.  The 14 home wins is a Tsongas Center single season record and equals the school record set at the Tully Forum in the 1995-96 season.
 
ROAD WARRIORS: UMass Lowell has the nation's 14th best winning percentage when playing away from the Tsongas Center.  The River Hawks have a combined Away/Neutral Site record of 9-6-2, good for .588 winning percentage. 
 
WHO'S HOT:
A. J. White, 17 points in his last 17 games, (8g, 9a, 17pts.)
Team Depth, 12 different players have produced 25 goals over an eight game span
Kevin Boyle, allowed two goals or less in six of seven games(5-2-0, 1.41, .949)
Joe Gambardella, points in five straight games  (2g, 4a, 6pts.)
Adam Chapie, 14 points in his last 14 games (6g, 8a, 14pts.)
C. J. Smith, 15 points in his last 14 games  (8g, 7a, 15pts.)
John Edwardh, 6 points in his last seven games  (4g, 2a, 6pts.)
 
FIRST OF ALL: UMass Lowell has given up the third fewest first period goals in the nation; 19.  Only Providence (14) and Notre Dame (17) have allowed fewer goals in the opening period.   
 
FILLING THE SEATS: For the second year in a row UMass Lowell has drawn more than 100,000 fans to the Tsongas Center.  The River Hawks claimed the top attendance in Hockey East and are 8th in the nation in average home attendance with the 2015-16 home season at an end.  Saturday night's crowd of 5,987 was the top Hockey East post season campus site turnout and pushed the season attendance numbers to 106,256.  UMass Lowell is averaging 5,592-per game (93.2% of capacity), one of three HEA schools drawing more than five-thousand per game.  A year ago the River Hawks drew more than 100,000 fans for the first time in the program's history.  The twenty games played at the Tsongas Center attracted 102,390 people, an average of 5,120 per game.  
 
DOUBLE DIGIT D:  Dylan Zink is the first UMass Lowell defenseman to have two ten-plus goal seasons during the Division I era.  Zink scored his tenth goal of the season, February 16th, at AIC.  Zink also had an even ten goals a year ago.  Division II ULowell defenseman Paul Lohnes had three ten-plus goal scoring seasons and had 27 goals during the 1981-82 campaign.
 
A TWENTY YEAR WAIT: When Dylan Zink scored three goals against Boston University, February 13th, it was the first time in twenty years that a River Hawk defensemen had turned a hat trick.  The last D-man to do it was Dave Barozzino who found the back of the net three times, March 26, 1996, against Michigan State in the NCAA Tournament.
 
HAT TRICK TIMES THREE: Three different River Hawks (C.J. Smith, Dylan Zink and Nick Master) have scored hat tricks this season.  That's the most since the 1992-93 season when seven different players found the back of the net three times in a game.  The River Hawks are one of only four teams in the country and the only team in Hockey East with three hat tricks.
 
TICK, TICK, TICK: Adam Chapie's two goals in nine-seconds, against BU on February 13th, are the two fastest by a single player in UMass Lowell's 33-year Division I history.  Gary Bishop, who scored goals :08 apart in 1968, holds the school record.
 
WINNER, WINNER, CHICKEN DINNER: Fifteen different players have scored game winning goals for the River Hawks this season.  Ryan McGrath and Adam Chapie lead the team with three a piece.  Joe Gambardella, C.J. Smith, Nick Master and Michael Kapla each have two.  Chapie has eleven career GWG, third most in the school's DI history and fifth all-time.
 
IN THE CLUTCH: For the second consecutive season defenseman Dylan Zink is proving to be Mr. Clutch.  Seven of his ten goals this season have either given the River Hawks the lead or tied the score.  14 of his 20 career goals are defined as "clutch."  Forward C. J. Smith also has seven "clutch" goals.  Four have given UMass Lowell the lead, three have tied the score.  In addition he has given UML a two-goal lead on three occasions.  Forward Nick Master is third with six "clutch" goals.  Four of Master's eight goals have given UMass Lowell the lead, two have tied the score.  
 
MIKE RICHTER AWARD:  Let's Play Hockey and the Herb Brooks Foundation announced that UMass Lowell goaltender Kevin Boyle was name one of five finalists for the 2016 Mike Richter Award, which honors the most outstanding goaltender in NCAA men's hockey.  The third annual award will be presented by Mike Richter at the 2016 NCAA Men's Frozen Four in Tampa, Fla.  Boyle, who was crowned the Hockey East Goaltending Champion, ranks second in the nation with seven shutouts, third in goals-against average (1.77), fourth in save percentage (.935) and fifth in wins (23).
 
HOCKEY EAST HONORS:  UMass Lowell senior goaltender Kevin Boyle and junior forward Joe Gambardella were honored by Hockey East at the annual awards banquet.  Boyle was honored as the co-winner of the Player of the Year award and was named the Stop It Goaltending Champion and the winner of the Army ROTC Three Star award.  Boyle had a 1.62 GAA in league play.  Gambardella was named the recipient of the Len Ceglarski Sportsmanship Award.  Gambardella has 8 goals and 33 points and just two-minutes in penalties.
 
STAYING OUT OF THE BOX: UMass Lowell is the least penalized team in Hockey East averaging just 8.7-penalty minutes per game.  That number places the River Hawks as the 13th least penalized team in the country.  Yale averages 7.7-minutes in the box per game ranking the Bulldogs as the 5th least penalized team in the country. 
 
CIRCLE OF DOMINANCE: UMass Lowell has the 20th best face-off win percentage in college hockey (51.0%) and the fifth best in Hockey East.  With three centermen winning more often than not, the River Hawks have won 1,265 of 2,478 puck drops.   Entering this evening's contest senior Michael Fallon (233 of 430, 54.2%.)  Junior Evan Campbell is second, (191-169, 53.1%) and freshman Nick Master (330 of 625, 52.8%) is also over the .500 mark.
 
BY THE SLIMMEST OF MARGINS: Twenty of UMass Lowell's 38 games this season have been decided by one-goal.  The team is 9-6-5 in those games and 39-24-18 (.527) since Norm Bazin signed on for the 2011-12 season. 
 
THE LEADERSHIP: Senior forward A.J. White and junior defenseman Michael Kapla have been chosen to wear the "C", as co-captains, on the front of their jerseys.  Senior Adam Chapie and junior Joe Gambardella are alternate captains.
 
DID YOU KNOW?:
Goalie Kevin Boyle is 13-2-3 with a 1.38 GAA and a .946 Sv% at the Tsongas Center this year...A.J. White has played in 144 straight UMass Lowell games...Michael Kapla has never missed a game in his UMass Lowell career, he has played in 118 straight games... UMass Lowell has been limited to just one goal eight times this season but that has resulted in just four losses... When River Hawk sophomore C.J. Smith scored three goals in the January 30th 8-1 win against Arizona State, it was the first "cycle" hat trick (a shorthanded, even-strength and power play goal) by a UMass Lowell player in more than a decade.  Ed McGrane was the last to do so in 2002.
 
SUCCESS IS THE NORM: Norm Bazin is in his fifth season at UMass Lowell with a 123-56-18 record (.670) in 197 games. He owns a 161-87-25 mark (.636) in 273 games now in his eighth season as a collegiate head coach, including three seasons at Hamilton College. Bazin is the sixth head coach in program history and the fifth Div. I boss (Riley, Crowder, Whitehead, MacDonald). He recorded his 100th career coaching victory on Nov. 23, 2013 vs. Notre Dame at the Tsongas Center and his 100th behind the River Hawk bench on October 9, 2015. He is also the fastest to the 100 win mark in school history. His first UMass Lowell win came against Minnesota State, 4-2, on October 14, 2011. Bazin is a two-time Hockey East Coach of the Year and was named the 2013 Spencer Penrose Award Winner given annually by the American Hockey Coaches Association to the Division I Coach of the Year. Bazin has led the River Hawks to four NCAA tournament appearances, back-to-back Hockey East Tournament Championships (2013, 2014) and one Frozen Four appearance (2013). 
 
PROTECTING THE LEAD: Since Norm Bazin took over the coaching reins at UMass Lowell, the River Hawks are 93-5-7 when leading after two-periods.  They are also 22-10-5 when the score is tied after two periods.  UMass Lowell is 39-23-18 in games decided by one goal.  Also, during that time period the River Hawks are 11-6-18 in games decided in overtime.  When UMass Lowell has a two-goal lead at any point in the game they are 98-4-3 and 49-0-2 at the Tsongas Center.