FRIDAY v. Northeastern: Live Stats | Watch | Listen | Game Notes (PDF)
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LOWELL, Mass.—After a brief break from the action, the UMass Lowell men's hockey team (4-1-2, 2-0-0 Hockey East) returns to the Tsongas Center for a weekend full of conference play. The River Hawks open their two-game homestand with a 7 p.m. tilt with No. 17 Northeastern (8-3-0, 4-2-0 HEA) on Friday, Nov. 12, before returning to home ice to host No. 16 Boston College (5-4-1, 3-2-0 HEA) on Saturday, Nov. 13, at 6 p.m.
SCOUTING THE RIVER HAWKS
UMass Lowell enters tonight's contest against Northeastern with a 4-1-2 record after battling L I U to a 3-3 tie nine days ago. The River Hawks are undefeated in their last six (4-0-2). They are 2-0-2 at the Tsongas Center and 2-1-0 on the road. The River Hawks are slotted at number 20 in the USCHO poll, their second week in the Top 20, and receiving votes in the USA Hockey Magazine Top 15 poll. Hockey East Coaches, in their pre-season poll, have placed the River Hawks seventh in the eleven-team conference. They currently sit in 6th place despite having played just two conference games, a weekend sweep of Boston University. 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 eight new faces; six are freshmen, two are transfers. The club sees six of last year's top ten scorers returning this season.
Lucas Condotta leads the team in points with seven (3g, 4a). Condotta, freshman
Matt Crasa and junior
Andre Lee top the goal scoring chart with three apiece. Crasa, Lee,
Brian Chambers and
Ryan Brushett are tied for second in points with five. Goaltenders
Henry Welsch and
Owen Savory combined to start 19 of the team's 20-games a year ago. Welsch has started three times this season and Savory four times. Each has a shutout. Savory shows a GAA of 1.23 and a save percentage of .946. Welsch is at 2.61 / .884.
SCOUTING THE HUSKIES
Northeastern has won five in a row and carries an 8-3-0 record into tonight's contest. The Huskies won three games in a four-day period, sweeping New Hampshire with a pair of 4-1 finals during last weekend and then topped Harvard 2-1 in overtime on Monday. The club is ranked 17th in the USCHO Poll and receiving votes in the USA Hockey Magazine Poll. This is only Northeastern's fifth game played away from the Matthews Arena. The team is 6-1-0 at home, 1-1-0 as the road team and 1-1-0 at neutral site games. Two of Northeastern's three losses have come against nationally ranked opponents, Quinnipiac and Boston College. They do have one win against a nationally ranked enemy, Harvard. Fourteen different players have scored goals, nine have scored more than once. Aidan McDonnough tops the list with eight. McDonnough and Jordan Harris each have nine points. Ty Jackson and freshman Justin Hrychowian have eight-points apiece. Goalie Devon Levi has not missed a second of action this season and carries a 1.55 GAA and a .945 save percentage into tonight's contest.
ALL-TIME SERIES VS. NORTHEASTERN
This is the 125th meeting between the two schools in a series that dates back to 1983. UMass Lowell leads the series 63-51-10, but the more recent meetings show Northeastern with a slight edge. That edge is reflected in the last fifteen games between the two teams, Northeastern leads 8-6-1. UMass Lowell has won just two of the last seven. The teams split a pair of games a year ago, each winning in the others' building. The Huskies swept the two-game season series the year before after taking two of three from the River Hawks in each of the two previous seasons. The two met in the 2016 Hockey East Championship Game. Northeastern won that match up, 3-2, but UMass Lowell does hold an edge in HEA Tournament play 10-5-0. The two teams met in one of the first NCAA regular season games played outside the United States. UML won that match up in the opening game of the Friendship Four Tournament in Belfast, Northern Ireland in November of 2015.
SCORING AGAINST NORTHEASTERN
Only two players on the current UMass Lowell roster have ever scored goals against Northeastern.
Connor Sodergren and
Reid Stefanson have each found the back of the net against the Huskies. Sodergren tops the scoring list with three-goals and four-points in ten games against Northeastern. Stefanson has three-points including a pair of goals.
Lucas Condotta has three assists. Goalie
Henry Welsch has faced the visitors twice showing a win and a loss. He has a 2.50 GAA and an .872 save percentage against Northeastern.
ABOUT LAST SEASON
UMass Lowell and Northeastern split a pair of games last season. Each won on the road. The River Hawks won the initial meeting, 4-1, after falling behind 1-0 71-seconds into the contest at the Matthews Arena on February 19th.
Charlie Levesque scored twice for the River Hawks.
Connor Sodergren and
Seth Barton also scored goals.
Henry Welsch stopped 15 of NU's 16-shots. Four different players scored goals 24-hours later as Northeastern turned the table on the River Hawks at the Tsongas Center, 4-0. Connor Murphy earned the shutout with 32-saves.
SCOUTING THE EAGLES
Boston College coming off a split with Merrimack last weekend plays against UConn in Hartford on Friday night before facing the River Hawks at the Tsongas Center on Saturday. The visitors are 5-4-1 overall and 3-2-0 in Hockey East play. The club is 2-2-0, both, on the road and in the Conte Forum. They have a win and a tie in neutral site play. The club is ranked 16th in the USCHO Poll and receiving votes in the USA Hockey Magazine Poll. BC is 2-0-1 against nationally ranked teams after earning wins against Northeastern and Denver. They also battled Quinnipiac to a 2-2 tie. Twelve different players have scored goals, three have five or more goals ten games into the season. Marc McLaughlin is BC's top goal scorer with seven, Jack McBain tops the points chart with 14. McBain and Patrick Giles each have five-goals. Former Bowling Green goalie Eric Dop has tended net for the Eagles in eight of the team's ten games. He carries a 2.72 GAA and a .883 save percentage into the weekend.
ALL-TIME SERIES VS. BC
This is the 122nd meeting between the two teams in a series that dates back to 1978. Boston College leads the all-time series 68-43-10. The Eagles swept the regular season series last year, but the River Hawks won in dramatic fashion in the Hockey East Tournament semifinals. Two years ago the two teams split a pair of 3-2 decisions. Boston College holds a 5-4-1 edge in the last ten. In the ten years that
Norm Bazin has been behind the River Hawk bench these two teams have played to stand-off, 12-12-3. UMass Lowell defeated Boston College in the 2017 Hockey East Tournament Championship Game and grabbed the title with a 4-3 win. They have met once in the NCAA Tournament with BC winning, 4-3.
PLAYOFFS VERSUS BC
UMass Lowell and Boston College have met eight times in the Hockey East Tournament for a total of ten games. Only one meeting was in the Final. That was in 2017 and the River Hawks finished on top, 4-3, to earn their third Hockey East Tournament Championship in five years. UMass Lowell earned a spot in the Hockey East Championship game with a 6-5 double overtime win against BC last year. The River Hawks have advanced by beating Boston College only once in the opening or quarterfinal rounds. That was in 1988 when UMass Lowell won a two-game total goals quarterfinal series, 8-5. That year the River Hawks won the deciding game 5-2 after the teams had tied at three the first night. They have met three times in the semifinals, but not since 2001, with Boston College advancing in each case.
SCORING AGAINST BOSTON COLLEGE
Six players on the current UMass Lowell roster have scored goals against Boston College.
Reid Stefanson and
Lucas Condotta have each scored three.
Connor Sodergren has not found the back of the net in ten appearances against the Eagles, but he does lead the River Hawks, in scoring, with seven-points, all assists, against Boston College. Goalie
Henry Welsch has faced the Eagles twice showing a win and a loss. He has a 4.55 GAA and an .855 save percentage against BC. Welsch did turn aside 19 shots in overtime in the Hockey East semifinal.
THE LAST TIME WE MET
The last time these two teams met it became an instant classic. UMass Lowell earned a spot in the Hockey East Championship Game with a 6-5 double overtime come-from-behind victory against Boston College, in the Hockey East semifinal, at the Conte Forum. The River Hawks trailed 4-1 with less than ten minutes left in regulation. UMass Lowell scored four times in the final 9:25 of regulation with
Anthony Baxter's second goal of the game evening the score at five.
Matt Brown got the game winner stopping the clock at the 12:00 mark of the second overtime. At 92:00 of hockey the double overtime win was the second longest game in UMass Lowell hockey history. The only game longer in River Hawk history was the River Hawks' 2-1 win against Providence in the 2016 semifinals. That game clocked in at 112:27. The double overtime 6-5 win against Boston College was the first time since 2013 that UMass Lowell has come back from a three-goal deficit to win a hockey game. That was a 5-4 overtime win against Northeastern on January 26, 2013. In that one the River Hawks trailed 4-1 in the third period before Riley Wetmore's extra attacker goal in the final minute tied it and Christian Folin's OT goal won it.
RANKED vs. RANKED
UMass Lowell and Northeastern have met seven times when both were ranked in the top 15 in the country. The Huskies hold a 4-3-0 edge in those seven games and have won nine of 14-games when both have been ranked in the Top 20. Northeastern is currently ranked 17th, UMass Lowell is ranked 20th according to USCHO.
RANKED vs. RANKED
UMass Lowell and Boston College have met 26 times when both were ranked in the top 20 in the country. The River Hawks hold a 15-9-2 edge in those 26-games. UMass Lowell is 7-6-1 when both are ranked and Boston College is in the Top Five in the country. Boston College is currently ranked 16th, UMass Lowell is ranked 20th according to USCHO.
SIX IN A ROW
After dropping the season opener at Arizona State, UMass Lowell has gone six straight (4-0-2) without a loss. It is the fourteenth time UMass Lowell has had a streak of exactly six games and the 39th time they've a streak of six or more. The most recent six game unbeaten stretch was during the abbreviated 2020-21 season. The six games (5-0-1) included the final three regular season games and the first three playoff games. The programs longest unbeaten streak is 36-games spanning more than a year, January 15, 1981 to January 26, 1982.
EARNING SOME NOTICE
UMass Lowell goalie
Owen Savory was honored by Hockey East as the Goaltender of the week after stopping 48 of 49 shots in a weekend sweep of Boston University, October 29 and 30. Savory, a senior, made 29 saves Friday night to guide UMass Lowell to their second consecutive shutout, the seventh of his collegiate career. Savory then backboned UMass Lowell to a 2-1 victory on Saturday night at the Tsongas Center to finish the weekend with 48 total saves while allowing just one goal. He now owns a league-best 1.23 GAA and .946 save percentage and is ranked third in the country in GAA (1.23) and fifth in save percentage (.946).
EARNING SOME NOTICE - PART II
UMass Lowell goalie
Owen Savory was honored by Hockey East as the Goaltender of the Month for October. Savory went 3-0-1 during the first month of the season while posting a 1.23 goals against average and a .946 save percentage.
