March 6 vs. Boston University (3 p.m.)
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LOWELL, Mass. - The UMass Lowell hockey team will honor its four seniors and wrap up the regular season on Saturday, March 6 against Boston University.
SCOUTING THE RIVER HAWKS
UMass Lowell enters tonight's contest with a 7-8-0 record after defeating Vermont twice, last weekend at the Gutterson Fieldhouse, 3-1 and 3-2. The team is 4-3-0 on the road and 3-5-0 at the Tsongas Center. UMass Lowell is not ranked in either the USCHO Poll or the USA Hockey Magazine Poll. The Hockey East Coaches' Pre Season polls placed the River Hawks fourth. The club is currently seventh in the Hockey East Power Index. UMass Lowell is sixth in offense averaging just over two and a half-goals per game. Sophomores
Andre Lee and
Carl Berglund and junior
Reid Stefanson lead the team in scoring with 11-points. Lees tops the goal scoring list with six, Berglund has a team leading eight-assists. Fourteen players have scored goals, seven have at least four each. At the back end, the defense is virtually unchanged from a year ago,
Chase Blackmun leads the group with five-goals and eight-points. Freshman
Henry Welsch and transfer junior
Owen Savory have most of the action between the pipes. Welsch has earned four wins and has a GAA of 2.77 and a .895 save percentage. Savory picked up his second and third wins last weekend in Burlington. He has a 3.53 GAA and an .829 save percentage.
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SCOUTING THE TERRIERS
Boston University is 10-3-0 after splitting a pair of games against Merrimack last weekend. The club is 4-2-0 at home and 6-1-0 on the road. BU is ranked tenth in the USCHO Poll and eleventh in the USA Hockey Magazine Poll. The Terriers are sitting in the second spot 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 3.54 goals per game while allowing 2.62. 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 15-points. O'Brien tops the goal scoring chart with seven, Farrance leads with ten-assists. Three different goalies have started games. Drew Commesso, with seven starts, has seen the most action. He's got a 2.73 GAA and a .925 save percentage. Vinny Duplessis has a 1.66 GAA and a .939 save percentage in five starts.
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ALL-TIME SERIES vs. BU
This is the 122nd meeting between the two schools in a series that dates back to 1983. BU leads the series 78-32-11. 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 14-11-3 edge since
Norm Bazin became the head coach. The Terriers have a 11-5-0 edge in Hockey East Tournament games and ended the River Hawks season two-games-to-one in the quarterfinal two years ago. The two were scheduled 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. The two teams 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 ended BU's 2013 season and coaching legend Jack Parker's career.Â
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ABOUT LAST SEASON
Boston University took the season series from UMass Lowell a year ago, 1-0-2. The two teams battled to a 3-3 tie at the Tsongas Center back on October 25th. The visitors got two goals from Patrick Harper and a goal from David Farrance in building a 3-0 lead by the 7:48 mark of the second period. The River Hawks responded with goals from
Chase Blackmun and
Kenny Hausinger in the second period and
Seth Barton at the 1:20 mark of the third period to tie the game. The two teams met again for a home-and-home series in late January. Ethan Phillips broke open a scoreless tie with a goal less than seven-minutes into the third period and Boston University added four power play goals, two by Patrick Harper, as the home team cruised to a 5-0 victory in the Friday night affair. Saturday night Patrick Curry scored with less than three-minutes to play to knot the game at two.
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NO TIES, NO SHOOTOUT
UMass Lowell and Boston University are the only teams in Hockey East who have not participated in a shootout this season. All of the games that each of these teams have played have been decided in regulation or during the three-on-three five-minute overtime. UMass Lowell has split its two overtime affairs; Boston University has won three of four games that have required extra time.
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AGAINST NATIONALLY RANKED TEAMS
UMass Lowell is just 2-6-0 against Nationally ranked opponents this season. Today's opponent, Boston University is ranked 10th in the USCHO Poll and 11th in the USA Hockey Magazine Poll. The wins, this year, came against UConn and Northeastern. The club dropped games against UMass (2), Boston College (2), Providence and Northeastern. The River Hawks are 70-62-12 against Nationally Ranked teams during the
Norm Bazin Era.
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SCORING vs. BU
Seven different River Hawks have scored goals against Boston University, but only three have more than a single goal. Senior
Charlie Levesque and junior Chas Blackmun have three goals apiece; Levesque has five-points. No River Hawk goalie has started a game against Boston University, only
Logan Neaton has seen any action against the Terriers. He allowed a single goal in 6:33 of relief work a year ago.
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GOALIE USAGE
UMass Lowell and Boston University are among a group of 13 teams in the country and two of three in Hockey East that have started three different goalies this season.Â
Logan Neaton,
Henry Welsch and
Owen Savory have all made at least one start. Boston University, the River Hawks opponent today, has started Drew Commesso, Vinny Duplessis and Ashton Abel in nets. Merrimack has also started three.
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NOT GOING TO THE BOX
UMass Lowell, typically among least penalized teams in Hockey East, is the fourth least penalized team in Hockey East this season. The River Hawks are averaging 10.27 minutes in penalties per game. Three teams have lower numbers and seven have higher. Boston University is fifth. The Terriers are averaging 10.85-minutes per game.
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NOT GOING TO THE BOX - Part II
No penalties, none at all. When UMass Lowell played Boston University of January 25, 2020 the River Hawks were not whistled for a single penalty in the hockey game. It is only the fifth time the team has played a penalty-free game in its history. The night before UMass Lowell was whistled for 35-minutes in penalties in a game against BU. The last time UMass Lowell played a game without a single penalty call against them was March 18, 2016 when the River Hawks beat Providence 2-1 in triple overtime in the Hockey East Semifinals.
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250
Last Saturday's 3-2 win at Vermont was the 250th win in
Norm Bazin's collegiate coaching career. Bazin has a career record of 250-149-39, a .616 winning percentage. The former River Hawk forward is 212-118-32 behind the UMass Lowell bench. His .630 winning percentage is fifth best among active Division I coaches with at least 100-wins. Bazin's first 38 victories came while leading the Division III Hamilton College program.
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THE SENIOR CLASS
This 2021 Senior Class has a record of 61-50-11. That's a .545 winning percentage and that ranks UMass Lowell sixth in the 11-team Hockey East. It is also the tenth best winning percentage in the school's 38-year Division I history. This group of seniors,
Anthony Baxter,
Charlie Levesque,
Benjamin McEvoy and
Connor Sodergren, has earned home ice in the first round of the Hockey East playoffs, either the opening round or the quarterfinal round, in each of their four years. All four members of the Senior Class have earned Hockey East All-Academic honors in each of their seasons at UMass Lowell. The senior group will be introduced before today's game and a video recorded by family members will be played on the center ice scoreboard.
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