March 17 at No. 1 Boston College (4:30 p.m. - NESN)
Live Stats | Watch Live | Listen Live | Game Notes

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. -- The No. 7 seeded UMass Lowell hockey team will visit No. 1 Boston College for a Hockey East semifinal matchup on Wednesday at 4:30 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 defeating Vermont, 5-3, in the Opening Round and Boston University, 2-1, in the Quarterfinals, the River Hawks are 48-50-3 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 SEMIFINALS
This is the 19th time that UMass Lowell has appeared in the Hockey East Semifinals.  Only two teams have appeared in the semifinals more often.  Boston College and Boston University have made 25 visits to the semifinals.  Maine has also appeared in the semifinals 19 times.  The River Hawks have advanced to the Championship Game seven times, winning three.
 
SCOUTING THE RIVER HAWKS
UMass Lowell enters this afternoon's contest with a 9-8-1 record after defeating Boston University, 2-1, in Sunday's Quarterfinal matchup.  The River Hawks are 5-1-1 in their last seven and 6-3-1 in their last ten.  The team is 5-3-0 on the road and 4-5-1 at the Tsongas Center.  The club earned the seventh seed based on the Hockey East Power Index and made it to the semifinals with wins against Vermont and BU.  UMass Lowell is sixth in offense averaging 2.94-goals per game.  Sophomores Andre Lee and junior Reid Stefanson lead the team in scoring with 14-points.  Matt Brown tops the goal scoring list with seven.  Lee, senior captain Charlie Levesque and junior defenseman Chase Blackmun each have six. Stefanson has a team leading ten-assists.  Freshman Henry Welsch and transfer junior Owen Savory have shared the goaltending responsibilities.  Welsch has earned five wins and has a GAA of 2.57 and a .898 save percentage.  He was in nets against BU.  Savory started the previous four (3-0-1) and has a 3.35 GAA and an .846 save percentage.
 
SCOUTING THE EAGLES
Boston College is 17-4-1 after ending New Hampshire's season with a 3-2 win in the quarterfinals.  The Eagles are ranked number one in the nation in both the USCHO and USA Hockey Magazine Polls.  The club is 10-2-1 at home and 7-2-0 on the road.  BC earned the top seed in the Hockey East Power Index.  The Hockey East coaches' Pre-Season Poll slotted the team in that number one spot.  The Eagles are averaging just 3.86 goals per game while allowing 2.18.  Eighteen different players have scored goals, nine have five or more markers.  Sophomore forward Matt Boldy leads the team in goals (10), assists (16) and points (26).  Marc McLaughlin and Mike Hardman have nine goals and freshman Nikita Nesterenko has eight.  Sophomore goalie Spencer Knight has started 19 of the team's 22 games, missing time only to participate in the World Junior Championships.  He's got a 1.99 GAA and a .937 save percentage.
 
ALL-TIME SERIES VS. BC
This is the 121st meeting between the two teams in a series that dates back to 1978. Boston College leads the all-time series 68-42-10. The Eagles swept the regular season series this year.  A year 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 a near stand-off.  BC holds a 12-11-3 edge.  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 seven times in the Hockey East Tournament for a total of nine 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 has 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. 
 
THE LAST TIME WE MET
Boston College swept the two-game regular season series from UMass Lowell, 7-1 and 4-3.  Alex Newhook and Mike Hardman had two goals and an assist in the first meeting between the two teams, February 12th, while Matt Boldy added a goal and four assists in Boston College's 7-1 win at the Conte Forum in Boston.  UMass Lowell had a first period 2-0 lead the second night, but the visitors came back with two four-on-four goals to tie the contest in the second period.  Nikita Nesterenko scored :09 into the third period to give BC a lead they would not relinquish.  Lucas Condotta had goals for the River Hawks both nights.
 
SINCE LAST WE MET
Since dropping a pair of weekend games to Boston College the River Hawks have played their best hockey of the year.  UMass Lowell is 5-1-1 in its last seven games.  The team has averaged 2.86 goals per game while allowing 2.14.  The power play has a 21.7% success rate and the penalty killing unit is at 92.0%.
 
SCORING AGAINST BC
Eight different River Hawk have scored goals against Boston College, four have done so more than once.  Charlie Levesque, Reid Stefanson, Carl Berglund and Lucas Condotta each have two.  Connor Sodergren leads the team with seven points against the Eagles, all assists.   Junior Chase Blackmun, with a goal and five points leads the defense corps.  Both Owen Savory and Henry Welsch have started games in nets against BC, neither has a win.
 
THE BOSS IN THE POSTSEASON
UMass Lowell Head Coach Norm Bazin has a 22-11-0 record in the Hockey East Post-Season.  The 22-wins are second among active Hockey East Head Coaches and sixth all-time.  Only Boston College's Jerry York made won more post season games, 63.  York is 19-11-0 during the almost ten-year period that both have been in Hockey East.  BU's Jack Parker has 62 career playoff wins, UNH's Dick Umile has 51 and Maine Coach Shawn Walsh has 31.  Tim Whitehead who coached at UMass Lowell and Maine has 24 playoff wins.
 
AGAINST NUMBER ONE
Boston College is ranked number one in the nation according to the USCHO Poll.  UMass Lowell has not found a great deal of success when playing the top ranked team in the country.  The River Hawks are just 1-20-2 against teams ranked in the top spot in the USCHO Poll.  That one victory was against Minnesota Duluth, October 11, 2019.  It was a 3-2 win, Lucas Condotta had two goals in that game.  The River Hawks have had some success against team placed number one in other polls.  The last previous win against a number one team was a 4-1 win against Boston College, part of a sweep weekend, in February of 2005.
 
NUMBER SEVEN
UMass Lowell is the number seven seed as determined by the Hockey East Power Index.  The River Hawks have been the number seven seed five times before and they are 3-9-0 including Sunday's 2-1 win against Boston University.    This is the first time they have ever advanced to the semifinal round as a number seven seed.  They fell to Maine as the number seven seed in 1990, '91 and 2006.  They lost two-games-one to Boston University in 2008 and were eliminated by Merrimack in 2018 dropping two overtime games.
 
UNLUCKY SEVENTH SEED
No seventh seed has ever won the Hockey East Tournament Championship.  With the River Hawk win against BU, the seventh seed has made it to the semifinals just four times and has advanced to the Championship Game just once.  That was Boston College in 2019, but the Eagles were defeated by Northeastern.
 
LAST TIME OUT
UMass Lowell defeated Boston University, last Sunday, 2-1, in the single game Hockey East Quarterfinals.  BU took a 1-0 lead 2:17 into the contest, but Matt Brown evened the score with a deflection two-minute 13-seconds later.  The game would remain tied at one into the middle of the third period.  Brian Chambers goal with 11:41 left on the clock proved to be the winning goal.  UMass Lowell limited Boston University to just two shots in the third period.  Henry Welsch made 16 saves to pick up his first post season win.

ON THE 'ROAD" FOR THE PLAYOFFS
This is just the second "road" playoff game for UMass Lowell, during the "Norm Bazin Era." The team had never played a "road" playoff game.  All post season, Hockey East or NCAA Tournament, games have been played at either the Tsongas Center or a neutral site.  UMass Lowell was, until now, the only Hockey East school that could make that claim during that, now, ten-year period.  After winning at BU, UMass Lowell is 1-0-0 in "Road" Playoff games.
 
A WIN TODAY
A win would propel the River Hawks into the Hockey East Championship Game.  It would UMass Lowell's eighth appearance in the Championship Game and sixth visit during the Norm Bazin Era.  It would also move UMass Lowell two games over the .500 mark for the first time since January 4th.


 

Related Videos

Now Playing:

• Play Video