SATURDAY v. UConn: Live Stats | Watch (Outside New England) | Listen | Game Notes (PDF)
SUNDAY at BC: Live Stats | Watch | Listen
LOWELL, Mass.—The No. 15 UMass Lowell men's hockey team (6-1-2, 4-0-0 Hockey East) readies for a home-and-home against Connecticut (6-5-0, 4-3-0 HEA) this weekend, Nov. 20-21. The River Hawks open the weekend on friendly ice at the Tsongas Center Saturday afternoon before hitting the road for the XL Center on Sunday. Both games are slated for a 3:30 p.m. start, with Saturday's game featured as the NESN Game of the Week.
SCOUTING THE RIVER HAWKS
UMass Lowell enters this afternoon's game against Connecticut with a 6-1-2 record after sweeping a pair of weekend games at the Tsongas Center against different opponents. The River Hawks beat Northeastern in overtime, 2-1, on Friday night and then bounced Boston College by a 4-2 count on Saturday night. The club is undefeated in their last eight (6-0-2) contests. They are 4-0-2 at the Tsongas Center and 2-1-0 on the road. The River Hawks are slotted at number 15 in the USCHO poll, their third 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 5th place despite having played just four conference games, a sweep of Boston University and last weekend's wins against Northeastern and Boston College. 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 eight. Junior
Andre Lee leads with five goals and is tied for second in points with
Carl Berglund with seven. Goaltenders
Henry Welsch and
Owen Savory combined to start 19 of the team's 20-games a year ago. Welsch beat UConn twice during the season, including once in overtime. Welsch has started three times this season and Savory six times. Each has a shutout. Savory shows a GAA of 1.31 and a save percentage of .941. Welsch is at 2.61 / .884.
SCOUTING THE HUSKIES
Connecticut comes into this weekend's pair of games with a 6-5-0 record after dropping two games last weekend. The Huskies fell first to Boston College, 2-1, and then were toppled by Providence, 6-4. The losses ended what had been a four game winning streak. UConn is part of a three-way tie for fifth place in the Hockey East standings The Hockey East Coaches pre-season poll pegged UConn for a sixth place finish. Connecticut is 5-3-0 on the road this season and 1-2-0 on the road. Fifteen different players have scored goals for UConn Ryan Tverberg tops the scoring list with nine-goals and 15-points. Five players have three goals or more. Union transfer Darion Hanson has been in nets for all 11 games this year and shows a 2.61 GAA and a .915 save percentage.
ALL-TIME SERIES vs. UCONN
This is only the 42nd meeting between the two schools in a series that dates back to 1969 when both were playing at a Division II level. UMass Lowell leads the all-time series, 27-11-3, have won the last three in a row and are 7-1-2 in the last ten. The River Hawks holds the edge, 8-5-2, since UConn joined Hockey East. UMass Lowell has twice won holiday tournaments hosted by UConn. They defeated the Huskies, 4-3 on a David Vallorani overtime goal, in 2011 to win the Toyota UConn Holiday Classic in Storrs, Conn. and knocked off UConn 3-1 to win the Frozen Holiday Classic in Bridgeport, Conn. in 2014. The two teams have never faced one another in the post season.
SCORING AGAINST UCONN
Ten different River Hawks have scored goals against UConn, but only two have scored more than one-goal. Senior
Reid Stefanson and grad student
Connor Sodergren are the team's top pointer scorers against UConn. Stefanson with 2-goals and five-assists and Sodergren with 1-goal and six assists lead the way with seven-points. Stefanson and
Andre Lee each have two-goals against the Huskies. Goalies
Henry Welsch and
Owen Savory each have wins against the Huskies. Welsch's two wins came last year, Savory's came as a member of the Rensselaer hockey program.
ABOUT LAST YEAR
UMass Lowell swept the two-game season series between the two schools. The River Hawks picked up their first win of the season, December 21st, 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 also scored for UMass Lowell, Carter Turnbull picked up the Huskies' marker.
Henry Welsch made 31 saves to earn the win. The second contest between the rivals required bonus hockey. UMass Lowell won the contest, 3-2, in overtime
Reid Stefanson and
Brian Chambers also scored goals for the River Hawks. Kale Howarth and Ryan Tverberg dented the net for UConn.
BACK TO THE XL CENTER
UMass Lowell and Connecticut will meet Sunday on the ice in the XL Center in Hartford. It is where UConn has been playing its Hockey East home games. Last year, with the nation facing a pandemic, the Huskies home game was played with no fans in attendance at the Mark Edward Freitas Ice Forum on the UConn campus. The River Hawks are 3-0-0 all-time at the Freitas Ice Forum and 2-2-2 at the XL Center, but 2-0-2 in their last four visits.
IN NHL BUILDINGS
The XL Center was once the home to the National Hockey League's Hartford Whalers, now the Carolina Hurricanes. The River Hawks have a 47-44-10 record in buildings that have been the home to an NHL team. UMass Lowell is 9-9-1 in the TD Garden/Fleet Center, 4-5-0 in the old Boston Garden, 1-2-0 at the CONSOL Energy Center, 1-0-1 at the HSBC Arena in Buffalo, 2-2-2 at the XL Center and 31-25-6 in the Matthews Arena, the former Boston Arena the original home of the Boston Bruins and the current home of Northeastern.
Vs. BIG TIME FOOTBALL SCHOOLS
UMass Lowell is 66-30-8 against schools with big time football programs (FBS members) since
Norm Bazin took over behind the bench. That includes an 9-3-2 record against Notre Dame, 4-1-0 record against Penn State and 4-2-0 against Arizona State and an 20-5-1 mark against Massachusetts. The River Hawks are also 13-12-2 against Boston College and 10-6-2 against UConn. Bazin's teams are also 3-0-1 against Michigan State and have a winning record against Wisconsin and Miami.
ABOUT LAST WEEKEND
UMass Lowell grabbed five out of a possible six points last weekend with wins against Northeastern, in overtime, and Boston College. The River Hawks, on Friday night, overcame a late third period 1-0 deficit to emerge victorious in overtime.
Lucas Condotta's power play deflection of a
Ben Meehan shot tied the game with just 5:51 remaining on the clock. Meehan then grabbed the headlines with the game winner at 1:26 of overtime. UMass Lowell followed that with a 4-2 win against Boston College.
Andre Lee scored twice, his second breaking a 2-2 tie early in the third period. Meehan and
Carl Berglund also scored goals. Goalie
Owen Savory was in nets both nights.
THE STREAK REACHES EIGHT GAMES
UMass Lowell has gone eight-straight without a loss. That is the longest active streak in college hockey. The River Hawks are 6-0-2 during that stretch. Quinnipiac is one behind UMass Lowell. The Bobcats have a seven (6-0-1) game streak coming into the weekend. That matches an eight-game streak early in the 2019-2020 season. The last streak of more than eight-games was a ten-game stretch in January and February of 2019. This is the eleventh time in the program's Division I history that it has had an unbeaten streak of eight-games or more.
4-0-0
The 4-0-0 start in Hockey East Conference play matches UMass Lowell's best ever start in league play. The River Hawks, then known as the Chiefs, started the 1991-92 Hockey East season 4-0-0. Matters went downhill after that. The team finished the year with a 6-11-4 record in conference play and 11-19-4 overall. It should be noted the best record through five conference games is 4-0-1 set at the start of the 2014-15 season. UMass Lowell has twice made it through nine Hockey East games without a loss; 7-0-2 in 2014-15 and 6-0-3 in 2015-16. They've never made it to 10 league games without a loss.
HOME SWEET HOME
UMass Lowell is undefeated in the early going at the Tsongas Center. The team is 4-0-2 on the familiar ice after winning just four of its ten home games (4-5-1) during the 2020-21 season. It was the first time the River Hawks have had a losing record at home since 2010-11 when the home team went 4-12-0. The River Hawks are 106-53-23 (a .646 winning percentage) at the Tsongas Center since
Norm Bazin took over behind the bench for the 2011-12 season. That .646 winning percentage is 12th best in the country. The national average over that span of time is .562. That includes a 13-9-0 record in playoff games.
IN THE NATIONAL SPOTLIGHT
UMass Lowell is getting some national attention. The USCHO Poll has placed the River Hawks in the top twenty three weeks in a row. They currently sit in the number 15 slot. It is the highest ranking for UMass Lowell since being ranked 15th in the January 18, 2021 USCHO Poll. This year's River Hawks had been listed as "Receiving Votes" in both the USCHO and the USA Hockey Magazine Polls since the start of the season, but November 1 the team moved into the "Ranked" column at number 19. The team with a strong finish and playoff run ended last year ranked 19th in the USCHO Poll. The River Hawks are no stranger to the polls, the River Hawks have been in the polls numerous times in recent years and had been nationally ranked for 116 consecutive polls between Jan. 7, 2013 and Oct. 23, 2017.
