January 3 vs. Maine (6 p.m.)
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January 4 vs. Maine (3 p.m.)
Live Stats | Watch Live | Listen Live | Game Notes (PDF)

LOWELL, Mass. - The UMass Lowell hockey team is set to host Hockey East opponent Maine for a pair of contests to begin play in 2021.

SCOUTING THE RIVER HAWKS
After a series of starts and stops UMass Lowell enters tonight's game with a 1-1-0 record after beating UConn on December 21st.  The team opened the season eight days earlier with a 4-2 loss to Providence at the Tsongas Center.  The River Hawks were the 45th team in the country to play a game.  UMass Lowell is ranked 17th in the USCHO poll and is "receiving votes" the USA Hockey Magazine Poll.  The Hockey East Coaches' Pre Season polls placed the River Hawks fourth.  The River Hawks finished the 2019-20 season with an 18-10-6 overall and 12-7-5 in Hockey East play.  The club finished in third place in the conference and was preparing to host Boston University in the Hockey East quarterfinals when the season came to a halt as a result of the COVID-19 crisis.  They were 8-5-5 at the Tsongas Center and 10-5-1 on the road last season.  The River Hawks return nine of their top eleven scorers including their top three; sophomores Matt Brown, Carl Berglund and Andre Lee.  In all the team brings back 83.6-percent of its offense.  Berglund, two games into the season leads the team with a goal and three points.  At the back end the defense is virtually intact, but goaltending will see a new face taking over the netminding responsibilities.  Sophomore Logan Neaton is the only goalie with collegiate experience.  Neaton was the opening night netminder allowing three goals while making 25 saves.  In four career appearances Neaton has a 3.59 goals against average and an .876 save percentage.  Freshman Henry Welsch stopped 31 shots in beating UConn, 2-1, in the season's second game.
 
SCOUTING THE BLACK BEARS
Maine, like UMass Lowell, has played just two games this season.  The visitors from Orono enters this evening's contest with a 0-1-1 record after a two game series at New Hampshire December 11th and 12th.  Maine did earn an additional point by winning the shootout following a 1-1 tie in their opener.  UNH won, 6-2, the second night.  The Hockey East Coaches' Pre-Season poll placed the Black Bears 8th in the 11 team conference.  A year ago Maine, with an 18-11-5 overall record, earned the fourth in the never-played Hockey East Tournament.  The Black Bears return three of their top seven 2019-20 scorers and added ten new faces to the roster.  Senior Eduards Tralmaks tied for the team lead in goals with 14 and was third in points with 30.  Freshman Lynden Breen leads the 20-21 Black Bears in scoring with a goal and three-points.  Sophomore goalie Matthew Thiessen has tended nets in both games this season and enters the contest with a 2.90 GAA and a .914 save percentage.  Maine has averaged 18 and a half minutes in the penalty box through two games.
 
ALL-TIME SERIES vs. MAINE
This is the 129th meeting between the two schools in a series that dates back to 1978.  Maine holds a significant edge in the all-time record, 81-40-7, but UMass Lowell has been the more dominant team in recent years.  The River Hawks are 10-4-2 in the last 16 meetings and 13-7-2 in the twenty-two games with Norm Bazin behind the bench.  The River Hawks are 8-3-2 against Red Gendron led teams.  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.
 
A FAMILIAR FACE
UMass Lowell and Maine have played one another 128 times.  The River Hawks have faced just one opponent more often.  The Lowell/Maine series dates back to 1978 when both were Division II programs.  That most frequent opponent is Merrimack.  The River Hawks and Warriors have faced off 134 times. UMass Lowell leads that series 82-40-12.
 
NOT GOING TO THE ALFOND
UMass Lowell has played more games in the Alfond Arena than on any other opposing team's ice, but will not go to the Alfond Arena in Orono this year.  This weekend series was originally scheduled for Orono, but a move to Lowell was forced by the State of Maine COVID-19 restrictions.  UMass Lowell has played 70 games in the Alfond Arena and has a record of 24-45-1.  Most but not all of those games were against Maine.  The River Hawks are 4-2-0 in six games against teams other than the Black Bears.  Those non-Maine games came in various tournaments including the Governor's Cup and the Dexter Show Classic.
 
SCORING vs. MAINE
Only nine players on the River Hawk roster have scored points against Maine.  Five players, Sam Knoblauch, Carl Berglund, Matt Brown, Charlie Levesque and Connor Sodergren have three-points apiece.  Knoblauch and Berglund are the only players with two-goals, Levesque and Sodergren have three-assists each.
 
LAST YEAR vs. MAINE
UMass Lowell took three-out-of-four points against Maine in a pair of games played at the Tsongas Center a year ago.  The goaltenders were the story the first night as UMass Lowell's Tyler Wall and Maine's Jeremy Swayman combined to stop 66 of 68 shots as the two teams battled to a 1-1 tie.  Carl Berglund got the River Hawks on the board with a second period power play goal.  Mitchell Fossier tied the game with a third period goal.  The second night Matt Brown scored early in the third period to break a 2-2 and propel the River Hawks to a 3-2 win.  Carl Berglund and Anthony Baxter also had goals for the home team.  Fossier and Jacob Schmidt-Svejstrup scored for the visitors.
 
A TIE vs. MAINE
Last year's 1-1 series opening final was just the third tie between these two team in the last 69, now 70, games dating back to the 1997-98 season.  By comparison UMass Lowell and Vermont have battled to eight ties in their last 41 meetings.
 
LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION
UMass Lowell and Maine have faced one another on nine different ice surfaces, the second greatest variety of 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.  Clarkson tops the list.  UMass Lowell and Clarkson have played at ten different locations.
 
THIS MEANS NOTHING, BUT...
Once upon a time when Maine visited Lowell it snowed, or that's what the folklore would suggest.  We mention this because there is snow in the forecast for Sunday night into Monday.  For the record; the Lowell area received more than a foot of snow four times when hosting Maine.  The largest game day snowfall was 15-inches when the two teams met December 12, 1992.  On the other hand, it was 74-degrees when the two teams met in November 2017.
 
TWO GOALS AND A WIN
When UMass Lowell defeated UConn, 2-1, on December 21st it was the first time the River Hawks had won a game when scoring two or fewer goals in more than a year.  The last time the team scored just twice and won was November 1, 2019 when they beat Vermont, 2-1, at the Gutterson Field House.
 
OH HENRY!
River Hawk Goaltender Henry Welsch wrote his name into the UMass Lowell record book in his collegiate debut as team defeated UConn, 2-1.  His 31 saves are the most by a River Hawk goalie in winning his collegiate debut during the team's Division I Era.  Tyler Wall made 40 saves in his debut in 2016, but the game against Minnesota Duluth ended as a 1-1 tie.  Carter Hutton made 38 saves in his 2006 debut, also against Minnesota Duluth, but that game ended as a 3-3 tie.  Welsch is also the first UMass Lowell goalie to win in his collegiate debut since Brian Robbins beat Minnesota State, 4-2, on October 14, 2011.
 
GETTING SOME ATTENTION
UMass Lowell freshman goalie Henry Welsch was named the Hockey East Defensive player of the week after making 31 saves in a 2-1 win at UConn on December 21st.
 
LAST TIME OUT
UMass Lowell put a "1" in the win column with a 2-1 victory against UConn at the Freitas Ice Forum in Storrs, Connecticut.  Sophomore Zach Kaiser broke a 1-1 tie with a goal with 2:50 remaining on the clock in the third period.  Carl Berglund scored for UMass Lowell, Carter Turnbull picked up the Huskies' marker.  Henry Welsch made 31 saves to earn the win.
 

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