March 10 vs. Vermont (3 p.m. - NESN)
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LOWELL, Mass. -- The UMass Lowell hockey team preps for its 33rd Hockey East Tournament appearance, as the No. 7 seed River Hawks take on the No. 11 seed Catamounts on March 10 in the first-round matchup at the Tsongas Center.
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. The River Hawks are 46-50-3 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.
SCOUTING THE RIVER HAWKS
UMass Lowell enters this afternoon's contest with a 7-8-1 record after battling Boston University to a 3-3 tie in the regular season finale. BU did win the additional-point shootout, 3-2. The River Hawks are 3-1-1 in their last five including a two-game sweep at Vermont. The team is 3-5-1 at the Tsongas Center and 4-3-0 on the road. The club earned the seventh seed based on the Hockey East Power Index. UMass Lowell is sixth in offense averaging 2.88-goals per game. Sophomores
Andre Lee and junior
Reid Stefanson lead the team in scoring with 12-points. Lee and junior defenseman
Chase Blackmun top the goal scoring chart with six. Stefanson and sophomore forward
Carl Berglund have a team leading eight-assists. Fourteen players have scored goals, seven have at least four each. At the back end,
Chase Blackmun leads the group with six-goals and nine-points. 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 three in a row, picking up his second and third wins eleven days ago in Burlington and earning a tie against BU. He has a 3.40 GAA and an .842 save percentage.
SCOUTING THE CATAMOUNTS
Vermont is 1-9-2 in a season of starts and stops.Their scheduled games last weekend against Merrimack were canceled because of COVID Protocols. They last played on the weekend of February 26 and 27 when they lost a pair of games to UMass Lowell, 3-1 and 3-2. They finished the regular season with five straight losses. The club is 0-3-1 on the road and 1-6-1 at home. Vermont is eleventh in the Hockey East Power Index but became the tenth seed when Merrimack was forced to end the season because of COVID Protocols. Vermont is averaging just 1.42 goals per game while allowing 3.08. Eleven different players have scored goals, but only two have more than a single marker. Seniors defenseman Christian Evers and forward Tristan Mullin lead the team with four-goals. Evers and freshman Ray Vitolins top the scoring ledger with six-points. Senior Tyler Harmon has started ten of the team's twelve games. He has a 3.37 GAA and an .905 save percentage. Freshman Gabe Carriere faced UMass Lowell in five of six periods during the previous weekend and has strong numbers; 1.86/.945.
ALL-TIME SERIES vs. VERMONT
This is the 60th meeting between the two schools in a series that dates back to 1972. UMass Lowell leads the all-time series, 34-17-8. UMass Lowell swept the series a year ago and is 15-1-2 in the last eighteen contests. Since Vermont joined Hockey East for the 2005-06 season, UMass Lowell has held a 29-11-8 edge in play. Twenty-seven of the 48 games have been decided by one goal or less. The River Hawks have won five of six Hockey East tournament meetings between the two and have eliminated Vermont from the post season on three occasions.
WHEN LAST WE MET
UMass Lowell swept Vermont in a weekend series February 26 and 27, 3-1 and 3-2, at the Gutterson Fieldhouse. In the series opener the River Hawks got goals from
Zach Kaiser,
Jordan Schulting and
Matt Brown before Tristan Mullin's third period goal got the Catamounts on the board in the third period.
Owen Savory earned the win making ten saves as UMass Lowell outshot their hosts, 33-11. The second night, Vermont got on the board first on an Andrew Lucas 1st period goal.
Chase Blackmun evened the score on a second period power play goal.
Reid Stefanson gave the visitors the lead and
Matt Brown added an empty net goal before Mullin picked up his second goal of the weekend in the final seconds of the game.
VS. THE CATAMOUNTS AT TOURNAMENT TIME
UMass Lowell and Vermont have met just three times in the Hockey East Tournament, twice in quarterfinal series and once in the semifinals. The River Hawks swept Vermont in two at the Gutterson Fieldhouse in 2009. The first of those games went into overtime after UMass Lowell had come from two goals down in the third period to tie it on a Nick Schaus extra attacker goal in the final minute. Maury Edwards provided the winner with two-seconds remaining on the clock in the first overtime, 4-3. The River Hawks won the second night 4-2. The teams met again in 2014, in Lowell, with the host winning two-out-of-three. Each of the games was decided by a single goal. The only semifinal meeting came in 2015 at the TD Garden. UMass Lowell won that 4-1. It should be noted that the two teams did face each other in the Division II ECAC Tournament in 1972. Vermont bested ULowell, 7-0 in that game. It was the first ever playoff for the Chiefs and goalie Mike Geragosian made a school record 62 saves.
IN 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.
THE BOSS IN THE POST SEASON
UMass Lowell Head Coach
Norm Bazin has a 20-11-0 record in the Hockey East Post-Season. The 20-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 21-25 in games, in various situations, in which a loss ends the season. The team is 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.
HOME FOR THE PLAYOFFS
UMass Lowell has enjoyed a home ice advantage in the Hockey East Post Season. This is the sixteenth time the River Hawks have hosted a Hockey East Tournament series; they have won 11 of the first 14 and five of the last eight. The 2020 Tournament never took place. Their only home playoff series losses came in 2012, when they were beaten by Providence two-games-to-one, 2018 when they dropped two overtime games to Merrimack and two years ago when Boston University took the series two-games-to one. Six of the previous 14 series have gone the maximum three games. Their last home playoff series win was 2017 when they defeated New Hampshire two-game-to-one.
HOME FOR THE PLAYOFFS-Part II
UMass Lowell, during the "
Norm Bazin Era," has 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 is the only Hockey East school that can make that claim during that, now, ten-year period. That could change; if the River Hawks defeat Vermont the next round will find the team on the road.
