February 5 vs. New Hampshire (6 p.m.)
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February 6 at New Hampshire (5 p.m.)
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LOWELL, Mass. - The No. 20 UMass Lowell hockey team continues Hockey East action this weekend with a pair of contests against New Hampshire on Friday-Saturday, February 5-6.

SCOUTING THE RIVER HAWKS
UMass Lowell enters this evening's contest with a 3-3-0 record after scoring just one goal in dropping two games last weekend against Massachusetts.  The games came after a 25-day break because of COVID-19 protocols.  UMass Lowell is ranked 20th in the USCHO Poll but is not part of the USA Hockey Magazine Poll.  The Hockey East Coaches' Pre Season polls placed the River Hawks fourth.  They currently sit eighth in the league standings three points behind New Hampshire.  The team brings back 83.6-percent of its offense from a year ago.  Sophomore Carl Berglund, six games into the season leads the team with a trio of goals and seven 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, freshman Henry Welsch and transfer Owen Savory have all seen action in the early going this season.  Welsch has earned two wins and has a GAA of 2.45 and a .909 save percentage.
 
SCOUTING THE WILDCATS
New Hampshire is 3-10-2 after dropping a pair of games last weekend against Providence and is winless in its last eight (0-7-1) games.  UNH's last win was a 4-3 overtime victory at Boston College January 8th.  The Hockey East coaches' Pre-Season Poll parked the Wildcats in the number eight slot.  Fourteen different players have scored goals, six have at least three apiece.  Junior Jackson Pierson leads the team with five-goals and 14-points.  Angus Crookshank and Patrick Grasso have four goals apiece.  Senior Mike Robinson has played fourteen of the team's fifteen games.  Robinson has a 3.15 GAA and an .893 save percentage.
 
ALL-TIME SERIES VS. NEW HAMPSHIRE
This is the first meeting between the two teams this season and the 127th meeting in a series that dates back to 1983.  UNH leads the series 63-45-18, but UML has won thirteen of the last twenty-one, including four by shutout.  UMass Lowell took three of four points from the Wildcats a year ago after UNH had the edge the previous season, 1-0-2.  The two teams have met on numerous occasions in the post-season.  UMass Lowell holds an 8-6-0 edge in HEA Tournament play including a 4-0 shutout to earn the 2014 Hockey East Tournament title.  The River Hawks also defeated UNH 2-0, in Manchester, to win the NCAA Northeast Regional final and advance to the Frozen Four in 2013.
 
ABOUT LAST YEAR
Jon McDonald scored during a six-on-four with just 57-seconds remaining as UMass Lowell came from behind to tie New Hampshire 2-2 in the first meeting a year ago between the two teams at the Tsongas Center.  Sam Knoblauch had given the home team a 1-0 lead in the first period, but the visitors countered with a goal by Filip Engaras before the period was over.  Eric Esposito gave UNH a 2-1 lead after two periods, before the River Hawks tied it on McDonald's goal.  The River Hawks won the next night in Durham, 3-2.  Knoblauch opened the scoring late in the second period.  Colin O'Neill added a penalty shot goal early in the third period and Anthony Baxter added the eventual game winner.  Angus Crookshank and Patrick Grasso scored for New Hampshire.
 
ALL TIED UP
Three of the last five meetings between these two teams have ended as 2-2 overtime ties.  In each of those games UMass Lowell came from behind to earn the point.  In two of those games, the game tying goal came with less than two-minutes remaining in regulation.
 
NAIL BITERS
These two teams have not been strangers when it comes to one-goal games when they get together.  Seven of the last eight games played between UMass Lowell and New Hampshire have been decided by one-goal or have gone in the books as a tie.  The teams have split the seven one-goal games, 2-2-3.
 
LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION
These two teams have played each other in nine different buildings, the second greatest number of venues for UMass Lowell against any one opponent.  UMass Lowell and UNH have faced off at Tully Forum (Billerica, MA), Snively Arena (Durham, NH), Boston Garden (Boston, MA), JFK Coliseum (Manchester, NH), Alfond Arena (Orono, ME), Whittemore Center (Durham, NH), Tsongas Center (Lowell, MA), Fleet Center/TD Garden (Boston, MA) and the Verizon Wireless Arena (Manchester, NH.)  UMass Lowell has also played Maine and Boston College in nine different buildings, but Clarkson tops the list with ten different venues.
 
NOT THE FRIENDLY CONFINES
UMass Lowell has not had the greatest success at the Whittemore Center where the two teams will play on Saturday night.  The River Hawks are only 11-26-4, .317, in the building.  That includes games in the 1997 Governor's Cup Tournament (4-0 loss to Vermont.)  The UML winning percentage at the Whit is the lowest in any current Hockey East building.  Recent years have been more favorable.  The River Hawks are 7-4-0 at the Whittemore Center during the Norm Bazin Era.  It should be noted that Boston University is playing in the Walter Brown arena this season and that building has not been kind to UMass Lowell, 7-26-1 (.221).
 
BIG ICE
The Norm Bazin led River Hawks have played well on "Big Ice."  The River Hawks are 45-23-6 on ice sheets larger than the standard/NHL 200 x 85 during Bazin's nine-plus years behind the bench.  They are 12-5-1 on the Olympic, 200 x 100, sheet including a 6-4-0 record at the Whittemore Center.
 
SCORING vs. NEW HAMPSHIRE
Only four players on the UMass Lowell roster have ever scored goals against New Hampshire.  Sam Knoblauch leads that group with just two goals.  Knoblauch found the back of the net in each of the games between the two teams a year ago.  Defensemen Jon McDonald and Anthony Baxter also have lit the lamp against the Wildcats.  None of UMass Lowell's goalies have faced UNH.
 
A WIN TONIGHT
A win would get the River Hawks back on the winning track and prevent a three-game losing streak.  It would move the River Hawks into a seventh place tie with New Hampshire in the Hockey East Point Standings.
 
AFTER A LOSS
UMass Lowell has done a terrific job avoiding any extended losing streak over the last couple of seasons.  The club has lost consecutive games just seven times during the past two-plus years.  Fifteen times the River Hawks followed a loss with either a win or a tie.  UMass Lowell followed this season's first loss with a win, 2-1 at UConn, but then dropped two in a row against UMass.  The team has not had a three-game losing streak since the 2017-18 season.
 
 

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