SCOUTING THE RIVER HAWKS: UMass Lowell is 3-5-0/0-4-0 after a dropping a pair of games to Northeastern during this past weekend. The club has dropped out of the national polls for the first time since December of 2012. The River Hawks, coming off a 27-11-3 season, were picked for a second place finish in the Hockey East Coaches' Pre-Season Poll. Ryan Lohin leads the team in scoring with ten points. Kenny Hausinger tops the scoring charts with five-goals, he's second with nine-points. Fourteen different players have scored goals, six have more than one. Tyler Wall and Christoffer Hernberg have split the goaltending responsibilities. Hernberg has started in four games and played in five and has a 1.34 GAA and a .951 save percentage.
SCOUTING THE BLACK BEARS:  Maine is 2-4-0/1-1-0 after losing a pair of low scoring games last weekend to Minnesota Duluth. The Black Bears were picked for a tenth place finish in the Hockey East Coaches' Pre-Season Poll. Maine lost its top two scorers to graduation, but returns the next seven on the scoring list. Mitchell Fossier and Rob Michel lead the team with five-points apiece. Eleven different players have scored goals, four have done so more than once. Fossier and Eduards Tralmaks each have three goals. Both Jeremy Swayman and Rob McGowan have started three games in nets. Swayman, a Boston Bruins draft pick, has a 3.15 goals against average and a .900 save percentage.
ALL-TIME SERIES VS. MAINE: This is the 123rd meeting between the two schools in a series that dates back to 1978. Maine holds a significant edge in the all-time record, 79-37-6, but UMass Lowell has been the more dominant team in recent years. The River Hawks are 7-2-1 in the last ten meetings.  Maine holds a 14-3-0 edge in Hockey East Tournament play, but UMass Lowell swept Maine out of the playoffs in their last post-season meeting in 2013.Â
LAST YEAR VERSUS MAINE: UMass Lowell and Maine split the two game regular season series year ago. Each team won in front of the home crowd. The Black Bears won in Orono, 5-2, on the strength of a Blaine Byron hat trick. The River Hawks won, 4-1, at the Tsongas Center as four different players scored goals.
LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION: UMass Lowell and Maine have faced one another on nine different ice surfaces, the most different locations that UMass Lowell has played any one opponent. The two have battled at the Tsongas Center, Alfond Arena, Tully Forum (Billerica, Mass.), Germain Arena (Estero, Fla.), Boston Garden, TD Garden, Gutterson Fieldhouse (Burlington, Vt.), the Central Maine Civic Center (Lewiston, Maine) and at Skate 3 in Tyngsborough, Mass. UMass Lowell and Boston College have also faced one another on nine different ice surfaces.
ABOUT LAST WEEKEND: UMass Lowell lost a pair of games to Northeastern, 3-1 and 5-4 in overtime, last weekend. NU's Adam Gaudette was the story the first night providing the Huskies with all of their offense. The second game was a see-saw affair that Northeastern eventually won in overtime. Five different River Hawks scored goals during the weekend. Both Connor Sodergren and Avni Berisha tallied their first collegiate goals.
TWO MEN DOWN, BUT NOT OUT: UMass Lowell played two men short on four different occasions in last Saturday's contest at Northeastern and the PK Unit came through with flying colors. The River Hawks played at a five-on-three disadvantage for a total of five-minutes and 10-seconds but kept their opponents off the scoreboard. On the season the penalty killers are 30-for-36, 83.3%. They've killed off 15 of 17 over the last four games, 88.2%.
A WIN TONIGHT WOULD...: ...push UMass Lowell to within a game of the .500 mark and give the hockey club its first Hockey East win of the season. The River Hawks had opened the season by dropping three in a row for the first time since the 1999-2000 season. They won their next three, but dropped a pair of games last weekend.
HOCKEY EAST WIN #1: UMass Lowell is still looking for its first Hockey East win of the season. The River Hawks have lost their first four conference games for the first time since the 2004-05 season when they lost five in a row to start the Hockey East season and after two ties picked up their first Hockey East win in their eighth league game.
WHO'S NEXT: Next weekend UMass Lowell will face a pair of Hockey East opponents.  The River Hawks travel to New Hampshire on Friday night and host Northeastern on Saturday. Each of the games will be the third meeting with each opponent. UMass Lowell is still looking for its first win against either.
BACK-TO-BACK: This is the fifth of 16 weekends during which UMass Lowell will play back-to-back games. The River Hawks have one sweep to their credit, a split and also have been swept twice this season. UMass Lowell is 1-3-0 on the first night, 2-2-0 on the second. A year ago the River Hawks went back-to-back 18 times. The River Hawks were 11-6-1 on the first night and 11-5-2 on the second. UMass Lowell authored seven sweeps and were swept just twice.
HOME SWEET HOME: UMass Lowell is 73-29-12 (a .693 winning percentage) at the Tsongas Center since Norm Bazin took over behind the bench for the 2011-12 season. The last time the River Hawks had a losing record at home was 2010-11 when the home team went 4-12-0.
WHEN RANKED TEAMS VISIT: UMass Lowell saw its 17 game (12-0-5) unbeaten streak against nationally ranked teams at the Tsongas Center come to an end last Friday night with the 3-1 loss to 20th ranked Northeastern. The streak was their longest since the USCHO poll began in 1997. Before last Friday, their last home loss to a ranked team on Feb. 6, 2015, when they were beaten by third ranked BU, 5-2. Â
ON THE ROAD: UMass Lowell is 81-42-10, a .647 winning percentage when playing away from the Tsongas Center in the six-plus years that Norm Bazin had led the program. The River Hawks are 57-32-9, .628, as the road team and 24-10-1, .700, in games played at a neutral site.
ROAD WARRIORS: UMass Lowell forwards Ryan Lohin and Kenny Hausinger appear to be comfortable on foreign ice. Four of Hausinger's five goals and seven of his nine-points have come on the road. Eight of Lohin's ten-points (1g, 9a)) have come on the road.
OFF THE NATIONAL STAGE: UMass Lowell did not appear in the national polls this week for the first time since December of 2012. The River Hawks had been nationally ranked, in either the USCHO or the USAHockey Magazine poll, for 119 consecutive weeks. The stretch began when UMass Lowell appeared at #20 in the USCHO Poll on January 7, 2013. Of those 119 weeks, more than two-thirds, 83, have been spent in the top ten. The streak was the second longest in the country. The longest streak also came to an end when Boston College disappeared from the rankings after 209 weeks. The longest current active streak is Boston University at 105 weeks.
AMONG THE NATIONAL LEADERS: UMass Lowell goalie Christoffer Hernberg is fourth in the nation in goals against average, 1.34, and save percentage, .951. Hernberg has started four and appeared in five of the River Hawks eight games this season. Forward Ryan Lohin is tied for second in assists with nine.
OFFENSE FROM DEFENSE: UMass Lowell leads Hockey East in goals from the defense with eight in the team's first eight games. Only two teams in the country have more goals from the defense. Their 22-points from the blue line is second in the league and sixth in the country. Six different defensemen have scored goals, two, Tyler Mueller and Mattias Goransson have two. Mueller leads River Hawk defensemen with seven-points.
GETTING THE FIRST ONE: Freshman forward Connor Sodergren picked up his first collegiate goal in Friday night's 3-1 loss to Northeastern. Sodergren found the back of the net in the third period with a shot from the left faceoff circle. Ryan Dmowski had the lone assist.
GETTING THE FIRST ONE-PART II: It took 11 games over three seasons, but junior defenseman Avni Berisha found the back of the net for the first time in his career last Saturday against Northeastern. The goal, which was the first point of his collegiate career, tied the score at a goal apiece in a game that Northeastern eventually won in overtime.
HERNBERG SPARKLES: It was 40 games between starts for goalie Christoffer Hernberg, but the junior has turned in four consecutive strong starts. He picked up his second collegiate victory in UMass Lowell's 5-2 win against Omaha and followed that up with a pair of wins last weekend against Clarkson and St. Lawrence. He stopped 58 of 59 shots during the weekend including 27 saves in his first career shutout, a 5-0 win at St. Lawrence. The wins were the first for Hernberg since January 29, 2016 when he beat Arizona State 4-1 making 19 saves.
WHAT A DIFFERENCE A YEAR MAKES: Forward Kenny Hausinger has gotten off to a quick start scoring five goals and nine points in the River Hawks first eight games. Last year, Hausinger had just one-point, a goal, after eight games. That is far ahead of the pace he set last year. Hausinger did not score his ninth point of the 2016-17 season until his 25th game February 3rd against Northeastern.
WHAT A DIFFERENCE A YEAR MAKES-Part II: Forward Ryan Lohin has picked up nine-assists and ten points in just his eight games this season. A year ago Lohin picked up his ninth assist of the season on January 14th at UMass, his 23rd game of the year. A year ago Lohin had only three assists through the first eight games of the season.
SEEN IT ALL AND COUNTING: UMass Lowell Head Athletic Trainer Artie Poitras is the longest serving hockey athletic trainer with one team and the second longest serving in the country. Poitras has been on the bench, in his role as athletic trainer, for 37 years since starting his UMass Lowell career in 1981. He has been witness to a National Championship, three Hockey East Tournament Titles and ten NCAA Tournament visits. The athletic trainer has worked 1,354 games including 1,287 Division I games.  He has missed only one game. Poitras is working on a consecutive games streak that has now reached 878.
GETTING OFF TO A GOOD START: UMass Lowell has scored first in five of its eight games this season. That has not always translated into a win. The River Hawks have only won three of those five games.
STINGY STARTS:Â UMass Lowell has allowed only four first period goals in eight games this season, an average of half a goal a game. That puts the River Hawks tenth in the country.
NON-CONFERENCE, NO PROBLEM: UMass Lowell has more than held its own in non-conference play over the last six-plus years. UMass Lowell is 73-25-6 (.731) in non-conference games since the 2011-12 season. The River Hawks are 19-7-3 against ECAC teams since Norm Bazin took over behind the River Hawk bench.
51ST SEASON OF UMASS LOWELL HOCKEY: This is the 51st season of hockey at UMass Lowell. The 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 853-706-116 all time with a winning percentage of .544 and 593-586-109 record (.503) as a Division I program.
BY THE CLOSEST OF MARGINS: UMass Lowell is 45-32-21 in one-goal games since the 2011-12 season. Also, during that time period the River Hawks are 12-10-21 in games decided in overtime.
PROTECTING THE LEAD: Since Norm Bazin took over the coaching reins at UMass Lowell, the River Hawks are 118-5-9 when leading after two-periods. They are also 28-18-9 when the score is tied after two periods. The River Hawks were 22-1-2 when leading after two periods a year ago.
THREE IS THE MAGIC NUMBER: When UMass Lowell scores three or more goals in a game it is 130-19-6, .858 during the last six-plus years. The River Hawks were 25-3-1 a year ago. When scoring two goals or less in a game the River Hawks are 25-52-15, .353, since 2011-12.
CLUTCH AND IMPORTANT GOALS: John Edwardh continues to perform in the clutch. Both of his goals this season are defined as "clutch" either tying the score or giving the River Hawks the lead. He led UMass Lowell in clutch goals last season with 13. Twelve of Edwardh's 19-goals gave UML the lead; another tied the score meaning that 68.4% of his goals were scored in clutch situations. Kenny Hausinger, Connor Wilson and Jake Kamrass, also, have two clutch goals this season.
AN IMPRESSIVE DEBUT: Freshman defenseman Croix Evingson made his collegiate debut a memorable one. The Anchorage, Alaska native scored on a breakaway after stepping out of the penalty box to give UMass Lowell a 3-0 lead in last Saturday's game against Omaha. The goal proved to be the eventual game winner in a 5-2 victory. Evingson also picked up an assist on the River Hawks first goal.
MAKING THE LIST: UMass Lowell goalie Tyler Wall is one of 20 netminders named to the Mike Richter Award Watch List. The announcement was made by the Herb Brooks Foundation. The award is given the nation's most outstanding goalie. Former River Hawk Connor Hellebuyck won the inaugural award in 2014.Â
The NHL and UML: Six former River Hawks have earned spots on National Hockey League opening night rosters. One, defenseman Chad Ruhwedel, is currently with the defending Stanley Cup Champion Pittsburgh Penguins. Forward Scott Wilson is now with the Detroit Red Wings. Christian Folin is manning the back line for Los Angeles. Defenseman Ron Hainsey has taken his game to Toronto. Goalies Connor Hellebuyck and Carter Hutton are protecting the nets for Winnipeg and St. Louis respectively.
The NHL and UML-PART II: Former River Hawk goalies Connor Hellebuyck and Carter Hutton have been putting up impressive numbers in the early going in the NHL. Hellebuyck defending the nets for the Winnipeg Jets is 6-0-0-1 with a 1.91 GAA and a .940 Sv.%. Hutton is undefeated in three starts for St. Louis with a 1.67 GAA and a .950 save percentage.
The NHL and UML-Part III: Three current River Hawks have been drafted by National Hockey League teams. Forward Ryan Lohin and goalie Tyler Wall were selected in the 2016 draft. Wall was grabbed by the New York Rangers on the sixth round and Lohin by Tampa Bay in the seventh round. Freshman defenseman Croix Evingson was chosen by Winnipeg in the seventh round of the 2017 draft.
BONUS TIME - NO BONUS: It has been a while since UMass Lowell won a game in overtime. The River Hawks' last OT win came on March 26, 2016 when they defeated Yale, 3-2, in the NCAAs. UML is 0-2-3 in OT since then.
100 GAMES CLUB: Three members of the UMass Lowell hockey team have played at least 100 games in their collegiate careers. Tyler Mueller (125), John Edwardh (108) and Chris Forney (107) have all reached the century mark. Mueller is tenth in the country among active players in games played and number one in Hockey East.  Tommy Panico with 87 games played is next on the list.
THE LEADERSHIP: Senior defenseman Tyler Mueller has been chosen to wear the "C", as Captain, on the front of his jersey. The River Hawk leadership team also includes Alternate Captains defenseman Chris Forney and forwards John Edwardh, Ryan Lohin and Connor Wilson.
ATTENDANCE LEADERS: UMass Lowell led Hockey East in average attendance, a year ago, drawing 5,542 per game. It was the second consecutive year that the River Hawks topped the leader board. The club closed out the 2016-17 regular season with crowds of 6,000 or better in each of its last six home games. Prior to this stretch UMass Lowell had never had more than three-consecutive home games with crowds of more than six-thousand. The River Hawks averaged nearly 900 more people than its nearest competitor. UMass Lowell is currently first in Hockey East in attendance this season drawing an average of 5,176 per game through first four home contests.
