Friday, February 22nd vs. Merrimack (7:15pm)
TEAM IMPACT NIGHT | ALUMNI SHIRSEY GIVEAWAY #4 BY DCU
(Tsongas Center; Lowell, Mass.)
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Game Notes (PDF) | 90 Seconds with Norm
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Commercial Radio:
River Hawk Network: 980AM WCAP/UMass Lowell Game Day App
Talent: Bob Ellis (Play by Play); Cleve Kinley (Analyst)

Non-Commercial Radio: WUML 91.5 FM
Talent: Connor Capozzi (Play by Play); Brianne Dillon (Analyst)
Producer: Tim Casagrande

Saturday, February 23rd at Merrimack (7pm)
(Lawler Arena; North Andover, Mass.)
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Follow on Twitter: @RiverHawkNation @RiverHawkHockey 

Commercial Radio:
River Hawk Network: 980AM WCAP/UMass Lowell Game Day App
Talent: Bob Ellis (Play by Play); Andy Merritt (Analyst)

Non-Commercial Radio: WUML 91.5 FM
Talent: Connor Capozzi (Play by Play); Tim Casagrande (Analyst)
Producer: Mia Farwell

SCOUTING THE RIVER HAWKS:  UMass Lowell is 17-10-2/11-6-2 after last weekend's double dip against Providence.  The club has won 11 of 15 road games and is 6-6-2 at home.  UMass Lowell currently sits in a second place with Providence in the Hockey East standings, six points behind Massachusetts.  The River Hawks do own the tiebreaker should the two Massachusetts state schools end the season with the same number of points.  The team is ranked 14th in both the USA Hockey Magazine and the USCHO polls.  The River Hawks were picked for a seventh place finish by Hockey East Coaches and was placed sixth in the Media Poll.  Ryan Lohin leads the team in scoring with 23-points.  Eighteen different players have scored goals, seventeen have scored more than once.  Lohin and Ryan Dmowski top the list of goal scorers with eleven apiece. Nine players have 11 points or more, four have at least 16.  Tyler Wall has started 17 of the team's 29-games and has a 2.03 goals against average and a .924 save percentage.  Christoffer Hernberg is 6-1-1 in his last seven starts and has a 1.92 GAA and .933 Sv.% over his last nine appearances. Both Wall and Hernberg have multiple shutouts to their credit.

SCOUTING THE WARRIORS:  Merrimack is 7-21-2 / 4-15-1 after earning just one of four points in a pair of Lawler Rink games against Maine.  The difficult weekend knocked Merrimack out of the playoff picture, the first Hockey East team to be eliminated from a playoff spot.  The Warriors were picked to finish in eleventh place in both the Coaches' Pre-Season Poll and in the Media Pre-Season Poll.  Twenty different players have scored goals, eleven have more than one.  Freshman Chase Gresock leads the team with nine-goals and twenty-points.  Craig Pantano has started 21 of the team's 30 games in nets and has a 3.43 goals against average and a .890 save percentage.

ALL-TIME SERIES VS. MERRIMACK:  This is the 130th meeting between the two schools in a series that dates back to 1971 when both were playing at a Division II level.  Merrimack won the first ten games between the two schools, but UMass Lowell leads the all-time series, 78-40-11 and holds a 56-21-9 advantage since Merrimack became a member of Hockey East.  The River Hawks have lost just four of the last 15 meetings.  The two team have meet twice in the Hockey East post season with each advancing once.

A WIN TONIGHT WOULD...:  ...avoid a three-game losing streak and keep the River Hawks in at least a shared possession of second place in Hockey East.  It, potentially, could move UMass Lowell to within four points of a first place tie with Massachusetts in the standings.

LAST YEAR VS. MERRIMACK:  UMass Lowell and Merrimack split a pair of regular season games, each winning on home ice.  The now departed Brett Seney scored two goals as the Warriors won, 4-1, in North Andover.  Ryan Dmowski scored twice the following night in Lowell as the River Hawks took the game 5-0.  Merrimack ended UMass Lowell's season the following weekend, in the HEA opening round, with a pair of overtime wins, 2-1 and 3-2.

PLAYOFFS VERSUS MERRIMACK:  UMass Lowell and Merrimack have met just twice in the Hockey East Tournament for a total of four games.  In 1994 UMass Lowell, the second seed, defeated Merrimack 7-1 in the first game of their best-of-three series.  Ian Hebert had a goal and an assist to reach the 100-point mark.  The River Hawks eliminated the Warriors 24 hours later with a 3-0 shutout by Dwayne Roloson and a hat trick by Norm Bazin.  Last year the story was very different.  Ludvig Larsson scored the game winner at 18:01 of the first overtime in a 2-1 victory.  Jace Hennig had tied the game with less than five-minutes remaining in the third period.  Hennig proved to have overtime magic the second night as he provided the game winner at 13:59 of the first overtime.  The two teams did meet on numerous occasions during their Division II days with ULowell holding a 5-4-0 post-season edge.

AT THE LAWLER ARENA:  The Lawler Arena, home of Merrimack College hockey and where the two teams will play of Saturday night, holds a special place in UMass Lowell hockey history.  It was on that ice surface that UMass Lowell won its first Division II National Championship.  In 1979 the Chiefs defeated Illinois-Chicago, 10-6, and Mankato State, 6-4, to claim the trophy.  Two years later ULowell grabbed its second title beating Mankato State, 8-7 in OT, and Plattsburgh State, 5-4, at the Lawler Rink.  The River Hawks are 35-25-5 all-time at the Lawler Arena.

AT THE LAWLER ARENA II:  Saturday night will be UMass Lowell's 66th game on the ice at the Lawler Arena.  The River Hawks have only played in one enemy building more often.  That is the Alfond Arena at the University of Maine.  UMass Lowell is 35-25-5 in the Lawler Arena.  The 35 wins are the most in an opposing team's building.  Thirty-one of those wins have come against Merrimack, the others have come in tournament play against various team.

LAST WEEKEND vs. PROVIDENCE:  UMass Lowell was swept for the first time this season, last weekend, by the Providence Friars.  The visitors got goals from five different players, two from Kasper Björkqvist, and defeated UMass Lowell, 6-1, at the Tsongas Center on Friday night.  Providence followed that up with a 1-0 win on a Tyce Thompson late second period goal Saturday at the Schneider Arena.

NO GOALS:  When UMass Lowell lost to Providence 1-0, it was the first time the River Hawks had been shutout since losing to UMass, 3-0, on February 10, 2018. It was the first 1-0 loss since February 1, 2013 when Merrimack beat UMass Lowell by that score.

NEXT WEEKEND:  The River Hawks have a home and home series with New Hampshire.  Friday the two teams meet in Durham, Saturday at the Tsongas Center.  UNH leads the all-time series 62-44-16.  The two battled to a 2-2 tie earlier this season and New Hampshire took two of three from UMass Lowell last season. 

AT THIS POINT:  UMass Lowell has 17 wins through the first 29 games of the season and that appears to be about par for the course during the Norm Bazin Era.  It is the sixth time in eight years that the River Hawks had at least 17 wins at the 29 game mark.  It is the third time they had exactly 17.  In two other years they had 16 wins and in Bazin's first season, 2011-12, the team had 20 wins.  For the fourth time in the Bazin Era UMass Lowell has 11 wins in its first 19 Hockey East Games, they had 13 in 2011-12.

THE REST OF THE WAY:  UMass Lowell has just 5 games remaining on the regular season schedule.  Those 5 games are against three different Hockey East opponents.  The trio has a combined record of 30-47-12, a .405 winning percentage.  The numbers change a bit once you factor in the number of games versus each opponent, 48-78-20 .397.

IN THE NATIONAL SPOTLIGHT:  For the fifth week in a row UMass Lowell has earned a spot in the USCHO poll and for the third time this year made an appearance in the USA Hockey Magazine poll.  The club is currently 14th in both polls.  Although missing from the polls for 28 weeks, UMass Lowell is no stranger to the polls, the team had been nationally ranked for 116 consecutive polls between January 7, 2013 and October 23, 2017.

BACK-TO-BACK:  This the fourteenth "back-to-back" weekend this season.  The River Hawks have 15 on the schedule.  UMass Lowell is 8-4-1 on the first night and 7-5-1 on the second.  They have four weekend sweeps on the board.  The sweeps have come against UConn, Colgate, Vermont and BC/UMass.  The River Hawks have been swept once this season. A year ago the team played back-to-back games on 17 weekends and had four sweeps to its credit, eight splits and also were swept five times.  UML was 10-7-0 on the first night, 5-12-0 on the second.

HOME SWEET HOME: UMass Lowell is 88-41-14 (a .664 winning percentage) at the Tsongas Center since Norm Bazin took over behind the bench for the 2011-12 season.  In 2017-18 the River Hawks were 10-8-0 on home ice.  They are 6-6-2 this season.  The last time the River Hawks had a losing record at home was 2010-11 when the home team went 4-12-0.

HOME COOKING: Ryan Dmowski leads the team with six-goal and 11-points in thirteen home games.  Kenny Hausinger has five Tsongas Center goals. Ryan Lohin has ten points in 12 games at the Tsongas Center.

ON THE ROAD: UMass Lowell is 11-4-0, a .733 winning percentage when playing away from the Tsongas Center this season.  The eleven wins are the second most in the country and that .733 road winning percentage is fourth best in the country.

ON THE ROAD, AGAIN: UMass Lowell is 96-56-9, a .624 winning percentage when playing away from the Tsongas Center in the nearly eight years that Norm Bazin has led the program.  That .624 winning percentage is the second best in the nation during that period.  The River Hawks are 72-45-8, .608, as the road team and 24-11-1, .681, in games played at a neutral site.

ON THE ROAD, AGAIN AND AGAIN: The loss last Saturday in Providence ended UMass Lowell's eight-game road winning streak.  It was their longest road winning streak since taking a school Division I record nine in a row in 2013.  The school record is 20 straight road wins set over two seasons beginning in January of 1981 and ending more than a year later.

ROAD WARRIORS: Several River Hawks appear to feel right at home when they are on the road.  Ryan Lohin has scored 13 of his 23-points and seven of his 11-goals on the road.    Connor Sodergren has scored 12 of his 19-points in enemy rinks.  Sam Knoblauch has scored seven (3g, 4a) of his eight points this season on the road.  Charlie Levesque scored eight of his 12 points and Lucas Condotta has scored all of his seven-points (3g, 4a) in enemy buildings.  Kenny Hausinger has seen nine of his 15-points come on the road.  Reid Stefanson has accumulated ten of his 13 points away from the Tsongas Center. 

CLINCHED:  UMass Lowell, earning four-points with wins against Boston College and UMass two weeks ago, has clinched a spot in the Hockey East playoffs.  The playoff seeding is far from being determined.  The River Hawks can finish anywhere from first to eighth place.  It is the 31st time in 35 years that the River Hawks have made the playoffs.  They have won the Hockey East Tournament three times.

FLUXUATIONS IN THE POWER GRID:  The UMass Lowell power play has been on on-again off-again proposition.  After scoring power play goals in four straight games and eight of eleven, the River Hawks have gone three straight games without a power play goal.  The PP Unit has a 16.4% success rate for the season.

PENALTY KILLING?: The UMass Lowell penalty killing unit has been playing some of its best hockey after a rough stretch.  The PK unit has killed 29 of the last 32 shorthanded situations over an eight-game period, an 90.6% success rate.  The PK success rate has now climbed to 83.5 on the season.  

WHAT A DIFFERENCE A YEAR MAKES:  UMass Lowell forward Connor Sodergren has four-goals and nineteen-points in 29-games.  A year ago Sodergren did not get to 19.  He finished the year with four goals and ten points. His fourth goal and tenth point came in his 32nd, the team's 35th, game.  Defenseman Mattias Göransson has also surpassed last year's totals.  Göransson has four goals and 16 points.  A year ago he finished with four-goals and 13-points.  Forward Chris Schutz has three-goals and seven points. A year ago he had just picked up the first two points of his collegiate career.

BACK-TO-BACK ZEROES:  UMass Lowell posted consecutive shutouts, February 8 and 9, for the first time since the 2013-14 season.  The River Hawks, with Connor Hellebuyck in nets, shutout Notre Dame and New Hampshire, both 4-0, in the Hockey East Tournament semi-final and championship games.

DIFFERENT GOALIE; SAME RESULT:  When UMass Lowell recorded consecutive shutout wins, February 8 and 9, it was the first time that multiple goaltenders, Wall and Hernberg, had played in consecutive shutouts since 2001.  UMass Lowell shutout Army, 4-0 on November 24, 2001 using both Cam McCormick and Jimi St. John in nets and then followed that up with a 3-0 shutout at Union on November 28th with McCormick going the distance.

135:47:  When Kasper Björkqvist scored at the 4:11 mark of the first period it ended a UMass Lowell shutout streak of 135:47.   Northeastern scored at the 8:24 mark of the third period in a UMass Lowell 3-1 win on February 1st.  UMass Lowell followed that with shutouts against Boston College and Massachusetts.

CLEAN SHEETS:  UMass Lowell goalies have combined for seven shutouts this season.  Tyler Wall has four and Christoffer Hernberg has three.  Only in 2001-02 did the River Hawks chalk up more shutouts as a team, eight.  Cam McCormick had six, Jimi St. John had one and the two goalies combined for an eighth.

DOMINATING THE DOT: UMass Lowell is dominating at the faceoff circle.  The River Hawks have won 919 of 1,765 puck drops, a winning percentage of 52.1%, second best in Hockey East.  Top performances have come from Charlie Levesque, Lucas Condotta and Nick Master.  Condotta has won 137 of 245, 55.9% and Levesque has won 188 of 338 draws, 55.6%.  Master has won 198 of 377 puck drops, 52.5%.  Merrimack is last in Hockey East with a faceoff winning percentage of 45.4%.

GETTING IN THE WAY:  UMass Lowell is third in Hockey East in blocked shots per game.  The River Hawks have blocked 350 shots in 29-games this season, an average of 12.07 shots blocked per game.  Defenseman Mattias Göransson leads the team with 49 blocks.  He is sixth in Hockey East.

STINGY D:  UMass Lowell held opponents to one goal or fewer in ten of its last twelve games.  That stretch includes four shutouts.  The River Hawks have a 1.67-goals against average during the twelve game span.

BY THE CLOSEST OF MARGINS: UMass Lowell is 55-42-23, .557, in one-goal games since the 2011-12 season.  The team is 4-6-2 this year in one-goal games.  The River Hawks played 12 one-goal games a year ago.  The results were split down the middle 6-6-0.

THREE IS THE MAGIC NUMBER: When UMass Lowell scores three or more goals in a game it is 153-23-7, .855 during the last seven-plus years.  The River Hawks were 15-4-0, last season, and were 25-3-1 two years ago.  When scoring two goals or less in a game the River Hawks are 29-73-16, .319, since 2011-12.

PROTECTING THE LEAD: Since Norm Bazin took over the coaching reins at UMass Lowell, the River Hawks are 141-9-9 when leading after two-periods.  They are also 32-20-9 when the score is tied after two periods.  The River Hawks were 12-2-0 when leading after two periods during the 2017-18 season and were 22-1-2 when leading after two periods two years ago.  They are 12-2-0 this season.

Defense:  Over the past seven-plus seasons, UMass Lowell has allowed just 2.25 goals per game and has a .920 save percentage.  Those number are among the best in the country.  Only two teams, (Quinnipiac 2.19 and Cornell 2.23), have a better goals against average and just one, (Denver .921) has a higher save percentage.

ON TARGET:  UMass Lowell has scored on 10.3% of its shots on goal during the nearly eight years that Norm Bazin has been behind the bench.  Only three teams show greater accuracy during that seven-plus season period of time.  St. Cloud tops the lists at 11.1%.  Boston College and Northeastern are at 10.6% and 10.4% respectively.

A GOOD START: UMass Lowell has allowed just 17 first period goals 29 games into the season.  That's an average of 0.59 goals per first period.  That ranks UMass Lowell eighth in the nation and only one Hockey East team has better numbers.  UMass has allowed 0.55 first period goals, a total of 16 in 29 games.  The River Hawks have outscored opponents 24-17 in the first period.  That goal differential, +7, is the third highest in Hockey East.

THE FINAL THIRD:  Twenty-nine games into the season and the River Hawks have outscored their opponents 32-goals to 23 in the third period of play.  The plus-9 is third best in Hockey East and is 13th in the country.  That continues a trend seen a year ago.  UML outscored opponents by 15-goals in the third period during the 2017-18 season.  That was the sixth highest goal differential in the country.

TEN IN A ROW - PART I:  UMass Lowell's ten-game unbeaten streak came to an end last Friday night in a 6-1 loss to Providence.  It was the second longest active winning streak in the country.  The River Hawks were 9-0-1 during the streak.  Bentley had the longest streak, eleven games (9-0-2).  That ended as well on the same night.

TEN IN A ROW - PART II:  During UMass Lowell's recent ten-game unbeaten streak the team has scored 3.33 goals per game and allowed just 1.44 goals per game.  During the first 17 games this season the River Hawks showed a 2.76 goals for number and a goals against average of 2.53.  They had outscored opponents by just four goals.  They have outscored their opponents by 17 goals during the streak.  Ryan Dmowski has seven goals, including four game winners, and nine-points during the streak.  Ryan Lohin leads the team with ten-points (5g, 5a).  He has two game winning goals.  The PK success rate was just 79.7% during the first 17 games and is 85.3% in the last nine.  The Power Play is at 23.1% during the streak after posting at 16.2% success rate in the first 17 games.

TEN IN A ROW - PART III:  The now ended ten-game unbeaten is the fourth longest unbeaten streak in UMass Lowell's Division I history and the longest since the team went undefeated in eleven games (10-0-1) during the 2012-13 season.  The River Hawks had a 12 game (11-0-1) stretch without a loss during the 1995-96 season and a 14 game (11-0-3) run during the 2004-2005 campaign. 

AFTER A LOSS:  UML has done a good job avoiding any extended losing streak.  Six times this season the River Hawks have followed a loss with a win, only on three occasions has the hockey club lost consecutive games and they have not dropped three in a row.

IT HAD BEEN A YEAR:  Nick Marin's shorthanded marker February 8 was his first goal in a calendar year, actually a year and two-days.  Marin's last goal had come on February 6, 2018 in a 4-0 win against AIC.  Last night's goal ended a 20-game scoring stretch. 

MAKING A DIFFERENCE:  Ryan Dmowski has eleven game winning goals in his career.  That ranks him first in Hockey East and second in the nation among active players.  Denver's Jarid Lukosevicius leads the country with 18, Michigan Tech's Jake Lucchini is second with 11.  His six game winning goals this season is tied for the national lead.

IN THE CLUTCH:  Ryan Dmowski leads UMass Lowell with nine clutch goals.  A "clutch goal" is defined as a goal that either ties the score or gives the team the lead in a hockey game.  Seven of Dmowski's nine clutch goals have given UMass Lowell the lead.  Connor Wilson is second with four clutch goals. Wilson and Ryan Lohin led the team a year ago with six clutch goals each.

YOUTH MOVEMENT: The UMass Lowell freshmen class has been key to the River Hawk offense.  The group, with 20-goals and 56-points, is second in scoring of the four classes.  The class is third in Hockey East in goals and points.  Reid Stefanson, with 13-points (6g, 7a), is the top scoring River Hawk freshmen.

PUTTING THE D IN THE O: The UMass Lowell defense corps has become a significant contributor to the River Hawk offense during the last 20 games.  After scoring just one-goal and adding ten-assists during the first eight games of the season the blueliners have contributed 11-goals and 45-points to the offense in the last 20 games.  During that stretch the River Hawks have averaged 2.90-goals per game after averaging 2.38-goals per game during the first eight contests of the year.  The eleven goals is the third most by a Hockey East defense since November 9.  The UMass Lowell defense corps is fourth in Hockey East in both goals and points.  A year ago the UMass Lowell defensemen were among the highest scoring in the nation with 26-goals and 89-points.

WHEN TWO IS ENOUGH:  Five times this season UMass Lowell has won games when scoring fewer than three-goals.  That is something the River Hawks rarely did a year ago.  The hockey club defeated R I T, 2-1, on October 12th, beat Maine, 1-0, on November 3rd, defeated Massachusetts, 2-1, on January 4th and KO'd Vermont 2-0 January 19th and shutout Massuchsetts, 2-0, last Saturday.  UMass Lowell is 5-5-1 this season when scoring two-goals or fewer, they were 2-14-0 a year ago. 

THE 2019 SENIOR CLASS: The five-member UMass Lowell senior class has accumulated a record of 86-50-10, a .623 winning percentage.  The class ranks second in Hockey East in wins and third in winning percentage.  The class which includes forwards Ryan Dmowski, Connor Wilson and Nick Master and defenseman Avni Berisha and goalie Christoffer Hernberg has won one HEA regular season title, a tournament championship, four in-season tournaments and made two appearances in the NCAA tournament.  The class ranks sixth in wins among UML teams.  The 2016 senior class tops the list with 100 victories.

THE CENTURY CLUB: Six members of the UMass Lowell roster have played more than 100 games in their collegiate careers and a seventh will join that club before the end of the season.  Nick Master leads the group with 142 games in a River Hawk uniform.  Connor Wilson (126), Ryan Dmowski (124), Ryan Lohin (102), Mattias Göransson (101) and Colin O'Neill (100) joined the club earlier this season.  Next on the list is Kenny Hausinger (97).  A year ago UMass Lowell had six players on the roster with more than 100 games played in their collegiate careers. 

78 GAMES:  UMass Lowell forward Colin O'Neill has skated in 78 consecutive games. That is the longest active consecutive games streak on the River Hawk roster.  O'Neill's streak began February 4, 2017, his freshman season, in an 8-2 win against UNH.  Ryan Dmowski is second on the consecutive games list with 62 and Charlie Levesque is third with 57.  Ryan Lohin, who had not missed a game in his collegiate career, saw his consecutive games streak end at 81 when he was sidelined with an injury earlier this season.  Michael Kapla is the River Hawk record holder with 161 consecutive games played. 

THE 19th MAN:  College hockey teams will be allowed to dress one additional skater this season; 19 skaters instead of 18.  The NCAA made the change citing a desire to give more student-athletes a playing opportunity.  UML used the rule change to dress a seventh defenseman in all but three of the team's 28 games.

ATTENDANCE NUMBERS:  After leading Hockey East in average home attendance for the last three years, UMass Lowell is hoping to do it again.  UMass Lowell trails Massachusetts, 5,031 to 4,963.  During the last three years an average of 5,339 fans have filled the Tsongas Center nightly to watch UMass Lowell play.

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.  He has worked more games than anyone else in any capacity.  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.  He has worked more games The athletic trainer has worked 1,411 games including 1,344 Division I games.  He has missed only one game.  Poitras is working on a consecutive games streak that has now reached 935.  He is the only trainer in College Hockey to work games at both Northern Arizona and Arizona State.