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LOWELL, Mass.—The UMass Lowell men's hockey team opens conference play this weekend with a home-and-home series with Boston University, Oct. 29-30. The River Hawks head to Agganis on Friday for their first tilt with the Terriers, before returning to the friendly confines of the Tsongas Center on Saturday. Puck drop is set for 7:30 p.m. and 6 p.m., respectively.
 
SCOUTING THE RIVER HAWKS
UMass Lowell enters tonight's contest against Boston University with a 2-1-1 record after earning a tie and a win last weekend against Michigan State.  UMass Lowell entered the 2021-22 season coming off a 10-9-1 season and a visit to the Hockey East Championship game.  The River Hawks lost eight players from last year's squad which finished out a much-interrupted season with a 10-9-1 record and a trip to the Hockey East Championship Game.  This year's roster shows nine new faces; seven are freshmen, two are transfers. UMass Lowell has been listed as receiving votes in both the USCHO and USA Hockey Magazine polls, but they have not been ranked in the top twenty at any point this season.  Hockey East Coaches, in their pre-season poll, have placed the River Hawks seventh in the eleven team conference.  The club sees six of last year's top ten scorers returning this season.  Freshman Matt Crasa (3-goals, 2-assists) and senior Lucas Condotta (1-goal, 4-assists) lead the team in scoring with five-points in four games.  Ten different players have scored goals and 16 have points.  Goaltenders Henry Welsch and Owen Savory combined to start 19 of the team's 20-games a year ago.  Welsch showed a goals against average of 2.54, Savory registered a 3.35 mark.  The pair have split the first four games this season.
 
SCOUTING THE TERRIERS
Boston University steps on to the ice tonight with a record of 3-3-0 after splitting a pair of games last weekend against Merrimack.  The Terriers dropped a 3-2 decision in North Andover before grabbing an 8-6 win on Commonwealth Avenue.  The team is 2-2-0 at home and 1-1-0 on the road.  The Terriers were picked to finish second in the Hockey East Coaches' Pre-Season Poll.  They are currently ranked 19th is the USCH Poll.  Eleven different players have scored goals, four have scored more than once.  Wilmer Skoog leads Boston University with four goals and seven-points.  Drew Commesso has started all six games the club has played this season.  He carries a 3.27 goals against average and a .901 save percentage into tonight's contest. 
 
ALL-TIME SERIES vs. BU
This is the 124th meeting between the two schools in a series that dates back to 1983.  BU leads the series 78-33-12.  The teams met twice last season with BU winning a shootout after a 3-3 tie in the regular season meeting and the River Hawks emerging victorious in the Hockey East Tournament Quarterfinal clash, 2-1.  In three of the previous four years the teams split the season series.  Boston University won 34 of the first 39 games, with three ties, played between the clubs.  The River Hawks hold a 15-11-4 edge since Norm Bazin became the head coach.  The Terriers have an 11-6-0 edge in the Post-Season.
 
 
SCORING AGAINST BOSTON UNIVERSITY
Only three players on the UMass Lowell roster have scored goals against Boston University.  Reid Stefanson, Brian Chambers and Connor Sodergren have each found the back of the net once against the Terriers.  Stefanson leads the team with six-points in nine games against BU.  Each River Hawk netminder has faced BU just once.  Owen Savory was between the pipes in the 3-3 tie, Henry Welsch tended nets in the 2-1 post-season win.
 
A FAMILIAR POST-SEASON FOE
UMass Lowell has faced no team more frequently in the post-season than Boston University.  Last year was the twelfth playoff year in which the two have met.  They have played seventeen games with BU winning 11 times.  The River Hawks 2-1 win a year ago was their sixth in the post-season against the Terriers.  UMass Lowell has also played seventeen-games against Maine, but have only faced the Black Bears in ten different seasons.  The River Hawks' first Hockey East Tournament Championship came with a 1-0 victory against Boston University in 2013.  The win also ended the coaching career of Boston University legend Jack Parker.
 
ABOUT LAST YEAR
UMass Lowell and Boston University met just twice last year, once during the regular season and a second time in the Hockey East Tournament.  The regular season confrontation went in the books as a 3-3 tie with the Terriers winning a shootout, 3-2.  Charlie Levesque netted the game tying goal.  The post season match up went the River Hawks way, 2-1, with Brian Chambers scoring the game winning goal midway through the third period.  The River Hawks outshot BU, 29-17, in a played in the Walter Brown Arena.
 
BACK AT THE AGGANIS
UMass Lowell and Boston University, tonight, will skate on the ice at the Harry Agganis Arena, after the Walter Brown Arena hosted the two teams a year ago in their one Boston-based duel.  The two had not played in the building since 2004 and the River Hawks had not won in the building since December 21, 2003.  That was 6,324 days or 17-years 3-months and 22-days between wins.  It was only UMass Lowell's fifth win ever in the venue.  The team has seven wins at the Agganis Arena.
 
SHOOTOUT
When Boston University defeated UMass Lowell in a shootout, 3-2, March 6, 2021 it was the first shootout for each team since Hockey East added the shootout to regular season games.  It is still the only shootout for these two teams in the year-plus that it has been part of the conference rules.  But it was not the first shootout between the two combatants.  The River Hawks and Terriers were the last two Hockey East teams to engage in a shootout last season, but they had gone through the drill a quarter century earlier.  UMass Lowell defeated Boston University, 2-1, in a Hockey East regular season shootout November 5, 1994 after the two teams had played to a 7-7 tie.  Billy Riga and Greg Bullock scored goals for UMass Lowell.  That first Hockey East two-year experiment with shootouts ended at the conclusion of the 1995-96 season.
 
HOCKEY EAST OPENERS
Tonight's contest is the first Hockey East Conference game for UMass Lowell.  The River Hawks are 16-15-6 in Hockey East openers and 14-18-5 in Hockey East home openers and 16-17-4 in road openers.  When UMass Lowell opens the conference season on the road they are 6-5-2. 
 
OPENERS
UMass Lowell is now 28-22-5, all-time, in season openers and 2-3-0 in the last five and 5-4-2 in Norm Bazin's eleven openers after losing to Arizona State, 5-3.  After the tie with Michigan State the River Hawks are 31-21-4 in home openers but are just at the .500 mark when they open the season at home, 11-11-3. 
 
OPENING NIGHT CROWDS
The home opener last Friday night drew a solid crowd of 4,658. UMass Lowell had drawn more than 5,000 fans in 11 of the previous 13 home openers.  Because of the pandemic no fans were allowed to attend UMass Lowell Hockey Games last season.  The first night record is 7,326 set October 10, 2014 when the River Hawks defeated Boston College, 5-2.
 
ABOUT LAST WEEKEND
UMass Lowell grabbed a tie and a win last weekend against Michigan State.  The first night was the more dramatic of the two.  Brehdan Engum scored his first collegiate goal with 1:38 remaining on the clock as UMass Lowell came from behind to earn a 2-2 tie with Michigan State.  The River Hawks had trailed twice in the game.  Andre Lee also found the back of the net for UMass Lowell as the club outshot the Spartans, 39-17.  Owen Savory picked up the win with 15-saves.  Henry Welsch made 27-saves on the Saturday night and went on to a 4-0 win.  Carl Berglund got the only goal the River Hawks needed in the first period.  Lucas Condotta made it 2-0 and Nik Armstrong-Kingkade added a pair of goals for the 4-0 final.

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