Saturday v. UMass: Live Stats | Watch (Outside New England) | Listen | Game Notes
 
Sunday at UMass: Live Stats | Watch | Listen | Game Notes
 
LOWELL, Mass.—The No. 15 UMass Lowell men's hockey team returns to action this weekend, Dec. 3-4, for a home-and-home series against in-state rival No. 14 Massachusetts. The River Hawks open the pair of games with a home contest at 7 p.m. on Friday before traveling to Amherst on Saturday for a 7:30 p.m start. 
 
SCOUTING THE RIVER HAWKS
UMass Lowell enters this weekend's pair of games with Massachusetts with an 8-2-2 / 6-1-0 record after last Saturday's 2-0 win against Maine in Portland.  It put the River Hawks back in the win column after their nine-game unbeaten streak come to an end the previous Sunday.  The team is 5-0-2 at the Tsongas Center and 3-2-0 on the road.  The River Hawks sit in the number 15 slot in both the USCHO and USA Hockey Magazine polls, their fifth week in the Top 20.  Hockey East Coaches, in their pre-season poll, placed the River Hawks seventh in the conference.  They currently sit in a three-way third-place tie despite having played just seven conference games.  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. Andre Lee leads the team in goals with eight and points with ten.  Carl Berglund leads in helpers with seven and is second in points with nine.  Lucas Condotta is third in points with eight equally split between goals and assists.  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 nine times, each has at least one shutout, Savory has three.  Savory shows a GAA of 1.10 and a save percentage of .954.  Welsch is at 2.61 / .884.
 
SCOUTING THE MINUTEMEN
Massachusetts enters today's game with a 7-4-2 / 5-2-1 record after splitting a pair of games against New Hampshire two weeks ago.  The team had last week off.  The Minutemen are 3-1-1 on the road and 4-3-0 at home.  UMass is the defending National Champion and ranking 14th in the nation in both major polls.  They are in second place in the Hockey East Standings.  The Hockey East Coaches pre-season poll pegged Massachusetts for a first place finish.  They received eight of the eleven first place votes submitted by the coaches.  Sixteen different players have scored goals for the Minutemen, six have at least three.  Senior forward Bobby Trivigno leads the team with six-goals and 14-points.  Freshman defenseman Scott Morrow is second in both categories with four-goals and eleven-points.  Senior Goalie Matt Murray is the only UMass goalie to see action this season.  He carries a 2.06 goals against average and a .930 save percentage into tonight's action.
 
ALL-TIME SERIES vs. UMASS
This is the first of three meetings between the two teams this season and the 89th meeting between the two schools in a series that dates back to 1968.  UMass Lowell leads the series 51-30-7.  The River Hawks have won 20 of the last 27 (20-6-1) over the last ten seasons.  The River Hawks did not get their first win the series until 1974, a 5-1 win.  Twice in the series UMass Lowell has put together nine-game unbeaten streaks, but the Minutemen have won the last four games, one short of matching their longest winning streak.  UMass Lowell has a 21-10-2 edge at the Tsongas Center and a 22-14-5 record at the Mullins Center.  The two have met in two different years in the Hockey East Tournament with the Minutemen winning on each occasion.
 
OVERTIME vs. UMASS
These two teams have gone to overtime 11 times in their competitive history, but not once in the last seven years.  The last overtime game was February 13, 2015 when they ended the evening knotted at three.  UMass Lowell and Massachusetts have split their 11 overtime meetings right down the middle, 2-2-7.
 
PLAYOFFS VERSUS UMASS
UMass Lowell and Massachusetts have met just twice in the post-season.  First in the 2004 Quarterfinals and again in last year's Hockey East Championship Game.  In the first meeting the third seeded Minutemen swept the series at the Mullins Center, 6-3 and 3-1.  Last year UMass grabbed the Hockey East title in a 1-0 game at the Mullins Center.  The only team that the River Hawks have faced less often in the post-season is UConn.  The two have never met.
 
FACING THE CHAMPIONS
This weekend UMass Lowell faces the defending National Champion.  The River Hawks have done reasonably well in the past in such scenarios.  UMass Lowell is 16-14-1 all-time when facing the defending National Champ.  That includes a 10-7-0 record on the road.  All but two of those opponents have been Hockey East schools.  The exceptions are 6-4 win in Grand Folks against North Dakota, the 1987 NCAA Champ, and most recently the October 11, 2019 3-2 win in Duluth as part of a weekend split.
 
SCORING AGAINST MASSACHUSETTS
Only five current River Hawks have ever scored goals against Massachusetts and none in that group have scored more than once.  Reid Stefanson tops the points board with a goal and three-assists for four-points.  Zach Kaiser, Carl Berglund, Lucas Condotta and Jon McDonald each have a goal.  Connor Sodergren has three assists.  Henry Welsch and Owen Savory face each played in three games against Massachusetts, neither has a win.  Welsch's numbers show a 2.24 GAA and a ,922 save percentages.  Savory's show 3.91 / .873.
 
ABOUT LAST YEAR
Massachusetts won the Hockey East Championship Game from UMass Lowell and swept the two-game regular season series from the River Hawks.  UMass Lowell only scored one-goal in the three meetings.  The Minutemen earned their first Hockey East Championship with a 1-0 win against the River Hawks.  Jake Gaudet's first period marker was the only goal of the game, Filip Lindberg made 16 saves to get the win.  Massachusetts toppled the River Hawks twice during the regular season, 5-0 and 2-1, as the team returned from a 25-day break due to COVID-19 protocols.  The first night at the Mullins Center Bobby Trivigno scored the first two goals of the game and added an assist as Massachusetts defeated UMass Lowell, 5-0.  Filip Lindberg earned the shutout as the River Hawks were held to just 16 shots on goal.  The second night, back at the Tsongas Center, Garrett Wait and George Mika scored goals for the Minutemen in the second period and Lucas Condotta got the River Hawks on the board with a third period goal.
 
SISTER SCHOOLS
Last year was the first time that "Sister Schools" have ever met in the Hockey East Championship Game.  Such meetings have happened with greater frequency in other conferences.  It has happened twenty times involving Michigan Schools in the CCHA and WCHA.  Minnesota colleges have met four times in the WCHA and the NCHC and Ohio schools met once for the CCHA championship.
 
KENNEDY CUP
The Kennedy Cup Challenge was established in the fall of 2018 and is awarded annually to the team with the most wins in the cumulative season series between the UMass Lowell and UMass Amherst.  UMass Lowell and Massachusetts are even, 3-3, in this fourth school year of competition.  The River Hawks won the inaugural challenge, 8-6, Massachusetts won the 2019-20 edition of the Kennedy Cup Challenge 8-4-1.  The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the 2020-21 edition and both schools were awarded the winners' share of financial support.  John Kennedy is a longtime supporter of the UMass Lowell and UMass Amherst athletic programs. Kennedy holds degrees from both schools.  For 23 years the two hockey programs competed in a three-game series for the Alumni Cup.  UMass Lowell won or retained the Cup 17 times.  That series was discontinued following the 2016-17 season.
 
MORE HONORS FOR OWEN
UMass Lowell netminder Owen Savory was named the Hockey East Stop It Goaltending Goaltender of the Month for November.  Savory finished the month with a 4-1-0 record to help the River Hawks to an overall 8-2-2 (6-1-0 HE) mark. He allowed just five goals on 121 shots faced in November and stopped a season-high 34 shots in a 3-0 shutout against UConn on Nov. 20. He has registered three shutouts this season for the River Hawks, with two coming in the last three games. He leads the nation in save percentage (.954) and ranks second in goals against (1.10). Against conference opponents, Savory has a league-best GA (6), GAA (.86) and save percentage (.966). He earned his second goaltender of the week honor after helping the River Hawks to back-to-back wins over then-No. 17 Northeastern and then-No.16 Boston College.  It is the fourth time that Savory has been honored by Hockey East with a weekly or monthly award.
 
6-1-0 IN CONFERENCE
This is the first time that UMass Lowell has ever won six of its first seven Hockey East conference games.  Previously the best record through the first seven was 5-0-2.  That was 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.  The best record with just one loss was 8-1-2 after eleven games during that 2014-15 season.

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