March 14 at Boston University (1 p.m. - NESN+)
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BOSTON, Mass. -- The UMass Lowell hockey team visits Boston University for the Hockey East Quarterfinals on Sunday at 1 p.m.

TOURNAMENT TIME
This is UMass Lowell's 33rd appearance in 37 years in the Hockey East Tournament.  They have won the Lamoriello Trophy in three times (2013, '14, '17) in the last seven years.  After UMass Lowell's Opening Round 5-3 win against Vermont, the River Hawks are 47-50-3 in Tournament play.  UMass Lowell has played in the tournament championship game in seven times including five in a row between 2013 and 2017.  The River Hawks were the third seed a year ago, but the tournament games were never played as the nation was hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.
 
THE QUARTERFINALS
UMass Lowell is appearing in the quarterfinals for the 31st time and the eighth time in the last nine years.    The River Hawks have won five of the last six quarterfinal series in which they have played.  The club has made 18 semifinal appearances, 17 times after winning a quarterfinal series and once earning the spot with a quarterfinal round bye.  Ten of UMass Lowell's 30 quarterfinal appearances have gone to a decisive third game.  The River Hawks have won six of those ten deciding games.
 
SCOUTING THE RIVER HAWKS
UMass Lowell enters this afternoon's contest with a 8-8-1 record after defeating Vermont, 5-3, in Wednesday's Opening Round matchup.  The River Hawks are 3-1-1 in their last five and 5-4-1 in their last ten.  The team is 4-3-0 on the road and 4-5-1 at the Tsongas Center.  The club earned the seventh seed based on the Hockey East Power Index.  UMass Lowell is fifth in offense averaging 3.00-goals per game.  Sophomores Andre Lee and junior Reid Stefanson lead the team in scoring with 13-points.  Lee, senior captain Charlie Levesque, sophomore Matt Brown and junior defenseman Chase Blackmun top the goal scoring chart with six. Stefanson has a team leading nine-assists.  Freshman Henry Welsch and transfer junior Owen Savory have shared the goaltending responsibilities.  Welsch has earned four wins and has a GAA of 2.77 and a .895 save percentage.  Savory has started the last four (3-0-1) and has a 3.35 GAA and an .846 save percentage.
 
SCOUTING THE TERRIERS
Boston University is 10-3-1 battling UMass Lowell to a 3-3 tie and a 3-2 shootout win nine days ago.  The club is 4-2-0 at home and 6-1-1 on the road.  BU is ranked ninth in the USCHO Poll and tenth in the USA Hockey Magazine Poll.  The Terriers earned the second seed in the Hockey East Power Index.  The Hockey East coaches' Pre-Season Poll slotted the team in the number six spot. BU is averaging just 3.50 goals per game while allowing 2.64.  Sixteen different players have scored goals, Five have four or more markers.  Sophomore forward Jay O'Brien and senior defenseman David Farrance lead the team with 16-points.  O'Brien tops the goal scoring chart with eight, Farrance leads with eleven-assists.  Three different goalies have started games.  Drew Commesso, with eight starts, has seen the most action.  He's got a 2.75 GAA and a .923 save percentage.  Vinny Duplessis has a 1.66 GAA and a .939 save percentage in five starts.
 
ALL-TIME SERIES vs. BU
This is the 123rd meeting between the two schools in a series that dates back to 1983.  BU leads the series 78-32-12.  The one previous meeting between the two teams this season ended in a 3-3 tie, BU won the shootout.  The Terriers won the season series a year ago, 1-0-2, after these two teams split the season series in each of the previous three years.  BU won 34 of the first 39 games, with three ties, played between the clubs.  The River Hawks hold a 14-11-4 edge since Norm Bazin became the head coach.  The Terriers have an 11-5-0 edge in the Post-Season.
 
BACK TO THE FUTURE
Part of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is that tonight's game will be played in the Walter Brown Arena.  The facility was the home to the BU men's hockey program from 1971 to 2005 and is again this season.  It now houses the women's program.  It has been 5,959 days since UMass Lowell last played a game in the Boston University's Walter Brown Arena. BU won that November 20, 2004 game, 5-3.  The River Hawks have just four wins and a tie in 31 games against BU in the building.  They were also 1-0-0 against Boston College in the building while the Eagles were building the Conte Forum.
 
EIGHT DAYS A WEEK
UMass Lowell and Boston University, in a back and forth game, played to a 3-3 tie, eight days ago, at the Tsongas Center.  Each team held a lead at various points in the contest.  Charlie Levesque's early third period power play goal evened the score at three and that did not change.  It was Levesque's second goal of the game.  Chase Blackmun also had a River Hawk goal.  Jay O'Brien, Luke Tuch and Domenick Fensore had markers for the visitors.  It was the first tie for each of the teams.  BU grabbed the extra point with a 3-2 win in the shootout.
 
SHOOTOUT
When Boston University defeated UMass Lowell in a shootout, 3-2, March 6th it was the first shootout for each team this season but not the first shootout between the two combatants.  The River Hawks and Terriers were the only Hockey East teams that had not engaged in a shootout this 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.
 
THE POST SEASON
UMass Lowell has won three Hockey East Tournament Championships, only three teams (BC, BU and Maine) have won more.  The River Hawks have made it to the Semifinals 18 times and again only the three same teams have gotten that far more often.  Boston University has won nine titles.
 
A FAMILIAR FOE
UMass Lowell has faced no team more frequently in the post-season than Boston University.  This is the twelfth playoff year in which the two have met.  They have played sixteen games with BU winning 11 times.  UMass Lowell has played more games against Maine, seventeen, but have only faced the Black Bears in ten different seasons.
 
VERSUS BU IN THE POST SEASON
This is the twelfth year, totaling 16 games, in which these two teams have faced one another in the Hockey East Tournament.  That includes four meetings in the Championship Game as well as two meetings in the no longer played consolation game to determine third place.  They have faced each other on three occasions in the quarterfinal round with UMass Lowell advancing just once.  The Terriers have a 11-5-0 edge in Tournament games and ended the River Hawks season two-games-to-one in the quarterfinal two years ago.  It is the third consecutive year in which the two are scheduled to play one another.  They were to meet in the post-season a year ago before the COVID-19 pandemic put an end to the season.  UMass Lowell swept the Terriers out of the Hockey East tournament, two-games-to-none, in the 2016 Tournament.  UMass Lowell has twice been knocked out of the tournament in the semifinal round by BU.  They have met four times in the Hockey East Championship Game.  BU has won three of the four, but UMass Lowell's first Hockey East Championship, a 1-0 victory, ended BU's 2013 season and coaching legend Jack Parker's career. 
 
A GOOD START
UMass Lowell advanced to the Quarterfinals with an Opening Round 5-3 win against Vermont, Wednesday at the Tsongas Center.  The River Hawks got two goals from Matt Brown and goals from three different defensemen.  Trailing 1-0 early in the second period the home team got a goal from Nolan Sawchuk.  It was the first goal of the junior's collegiate career and it ignited a four goal second period explosion.  UMass Lowell also got goals from Anthony Baxter and Seth Barton.
 
THE DEFENSE LEADS THE WAY
Three UMass Lowell defensemen scored goals in the River Hawks 5-3 win, Wednesday, against Vermont.  It was the first time that three different defensemen had scored goals for UMass Lowell in a game since October 14, 2017 when Mattias Goransson, Croix Evingson and Tyler Mueller scored goals in UMass Lowell's 5-2 win against Omaha.
 
THE BOSS IN THE POSTSEASON
UMass Lowell Head Coach Norm Bazin has a 21-11-0 record in the Hockey East PostSeason.  The 21-wins are second among active Hockey East Head Coaches.  Only Boston College's Jerry York made won more post season games, 63.  York is 18-11-0 during the almost ten-year period that both have been in Hockey East.
 
ALL ON THE LINE
The 2021 Hockey East Playoffs are single elimination.  UMass Lowell is 22-25 in games, in various situations, in which a loss ends the season.  The team is 1-0 in single elimination games in the Opening Round and 0-1 when down one game in the Opening Round.  They are 1-2 in one-game Quarterfinals, 5-4 when down one game in the Quarterfinals and 6-4 in Quarterfinal game threes.  In the one-game semifinals they are 7-10 and 3-4 in the one-game Championship Games.
 

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