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LOWELL, Mass.—With the postseason race heating up, the UMass Lowell men's hockey team (16-6-3, 12-5-1 Hockey East) sets its sight on a pair of crucial conference matchups against No. 15 Northeastern (18-8-1, 9-6-1 HEA) and New Hampshire (12-13-1, 6-10-1 HEA). Puck drop for Friday's clash with the Huskies is set for 7:15 p.m., while Sunday's matinee game at the home of the Wildcats is set for a 2 p.m. start.
SCOUTING THE RIVER HAWKS
UMass Lowell enters tonight's game with an 16-6-3 / 12-5-1 record after sweeping the weekend with victories against Boston College, 3-2, and Dartmouth, 6-3. The River Hawks are 8-4-0 on the road and 8-2-3 on the familiar ice of the Tsongas Center. UMass Lowell currently sits in the number 13 slot in both the DCU/USCHO and USA Hockey Magazine Polls. It is the team's 13th week in the Top 20. Hockey East Coaches, in their pre-season poll, placed the River Hawks seventh in the conference. UMass Lowell currently holds first place gaining that spot with a sweep of Vermont in the final weekend of action before the winter break. The team currently has a four-point lead over second place Massachusetts.
Andre Lee leads the team in goals with a thirteen. Lee and
Carl Berglund top the points chart with twenty. Berglund's sixteen-assists lead the club. Goaltenders
Henry Welsch and
Owen Savory split time in goal evenly a year ago, but this year Savory has shouldered the heavier workload. Savory has gotten the call 18 times and has been among the nation's best. He's got a 1.78 GAA and a .928 save percentage. The senior has four shutouts. Welsch has started five times with one shutout and a 2.77 GAA and a .878 save percentage.
SCOUTING THE HUSKIES
Northeastern has been among the upper echelon in Hockey East this season. They enter tonight's game with a record of 18-8-1 / 9-6-1 after a win against Vermont, 5-4, last weekend and a Beanpot opening round win against Boston College, 3-1, this past Monday. They will face Boston University in the Beanpot Championship Game this coming Monday. The team is ranked 16th in the USCHO Poll and receiving votes in the USA Hockey Magazine Poll. Despite losing to UMass Lowell two weeks ago the Huskies are 11-4-1 at the historic Matthews Arena, 5-3-0 on the road and 2-1-0 in neutral site games. The Hockey East Coaches pre-season poll slotted Northeastern in fourth place; they currently sit in seventh place, eight points behind UMass Lowell, but with a couple of games in hand. Fourteen different players have scored goals, eight have five or more. Aidan McDonough, one of the nation's top scorers, leads the team with 17-goals and 24-points. Goalie Devon Levi has started the team's first 24-games and has a 1.55 GAA, but he has departed for the Olympics. T.J. Semptimphelter has taken over the net responsibilities and has responded well; 2.12GAA / .941 save percentage.
ALL-TIME SERIES VS. NORTHEASTERN
This is the 127th meeting between the two schools in a series that dates back to 1983. UMass Lowell leads the series 65-51-10, but the more recent meetings for the most part have been even. That's reflected in the last seventeen games. They've been split down the middle 8-8-1. UMass Lowell has won two in a row, but just four of the last nine. The teams split a pair of games a year ago, each winning in the others' building. The Huskies swept the two-game season series the year before after taking two of three from the River Hawks in each of the two previous seasons. The two met in the 2016 Hockey East Championship Game. Northeastern won that match up, 3-2, but UMass Lowell does hold an edge in HEA Tournament play 10-5-0. The two teams met in one of the first NCAA regular season games played outside the United States. UML won that match up in the opening game of the Friendship Four Tournament in Belfast, Northern Ireland in November of 2015.
THE FIRST TIME AROUND
UMass Lowell overcame a late third period 1-0 deficit to emerge victorious in overtime back on November 12th in the Tsongas Center.
Lucas Condotta's power play deflection of a
Ben Meehan shot tied the game with just 5:51 remaining on the clock. Meehan then grabbed the headlines with the game winner at 1:26 of overtime. Goalie
Owen Savory made 16-saves to earn the win.
AT THE TSONGAS
The UMass Lowell 2-1 OT victory at the Tsongas Center, November 12th, ended what had become a Northeastern three-game winning streak at the Tsongas Center. Northeastern had gone home with a win in each of their three previous visits to Lowell, two by shutout. It had been three years and a day since the River Hawks had topped Northeastern in their home city of Lowell. That last River Hawk win against Northeastern at the Tsongas Center was by a 4-2 count on November 11, 2018.
EXTRA TIME?
When UMass Lowell and Northeastern meet 60-minutes is often not enough time to decide matters. This year's first meeting between the two teams proved the point as UMass Lowell grabbed a 2-1 overtime victory. Eighteen of the last 55 games between the two teams have gone to overtime. UMass Lowell holds 8-4-6 edge in those OT games, and 11-5-10 overtime advantage all-time in long history between the two. More recently, ten of the last 27 games have required extra time with the River Hawks holding a slight edge, 4-3-3.
THE SECOND TIME AROUND
UMass Lowell earned the tiebreaker against Northeastern with a 2-1 win at the Matthews Arena in the second meeting between the two teams this season. Freshman
Stefan Owens and
Matt Crasa scored goals as the River Hawks built a 2-0 lead in the middle of second period. Matt Demelis put Northeastern in the second period, but that ended the night's scoring.
Owen Savory made 26-saves to pick up the victory.
FRESHMAN SCORERS
Two different freshmen scored goals for UMass Lowell the last time these two teams met, January 28th. That hadn't happened in a while.
Stefan Owens and
Matt Crasa scored each found the back of the net. It was the first time this year that two different first year players had scored in the same game. Last time that happened was February 21, 2020, when
Zach Kaiser and
Carl Berglund scored goals in a 3-2 win against UMass.
AT BEANPOT TIME
As these two teams meet Northeastern is between Beanpot games. The Huskies will play in the tournament's Championship Game on Monday against Boston University. When UMass Lowell is facing one of the Beanpot teams during the week in between games, they are 5-14-2, but 4-5-1 at home. Against Northeastern, they are 1-3-2, but 1-1-1 at home. When the River Hawks are facing a team that will be playing in the Beanpot Championship Game, they are 3-8-0, 3-4-0 at home. When Lowell is playing Northeastern before they play in the Championship Game, they are 0-1, a 3-2 loss at the Tsongas Center on 2/10/2005.
ABOUT LAST SEASON
UMass Lowell and Northeastern split a pair of games last season. Each won on the road. The River Hawks won the initial meeting, 4-1, after falling behind 1-0 71-seconds into the contest at the Matthews Arena on February 19th.
Charlie Levesque scored twice for the River Hawks.
Connor Sodergren and
Seth Barton also scored goals.
Henry Welsch stopped 15 of NU's 16-shots. Four different players scored goals 24-hours later as Northeastern turned the table on the River Hawks at the Tsongas Center, 4-0. Connor Murphy earned the shutout with 32-saves.
RANKED vs. RANKED
UMass Lowell and Northeastern are both nationally ranked. They have met nine times when both were ranked in the top 15 in the country and little has been settled. The River Hawks hold a one-game edge, 5-4-0. The Huskies have won nine of 16-games when both have been ranked in the Top 20. Northeastern is currently ranked 16th, UMass Lowell is ranked 13th according to both USCHO and USA Hockey Magazine.
SCORING AGAINST NORTHEASTERN
Only six players on the current UMass Lowell roster have ever scored goals against Northeastern. Four of the six have found the back of the net in two games this season.
Connor Sodergren,
Reid Stefanson,
Lucas Condotta,
Ben Meehan,
Matt Crasa and
Stefan Owens have each tallied at least one goal against the Huskies. Sodergren and Condotta top the scoring list with four-points apiece. Sodergren has three-goals in twelve games against Northeastern. Stefanson has three-points including a pair of goals.
Lucas Condotta has three assists. Goalie
Henry Welsch has faced the visitors twice showing a win and a loss. He has a 2.50 GAA and an .872 save percentage against Northeastern.
Owen Savory has faced the Huskies twice this season. He's allowed just two-goals and blocked 42-shots in a pair of 2-1 victories.
BAZIN VS. KEEFE
This is the first season in which
Norm Bazin and Jerry Keefe have faced one another from opposite benches. Bazin won their first two face-to-face meetings; each by a score of 2-1. Keefe is in his first year leading the Husky program. The new coach had been an assistant with Northeastern before taking over the program this past summer from Jim Madigan who moved into the position of Director of Athletics. Madigan and Bazin both came on board for the 2011-12 season and since that time the two teams have shown a nearly even split in the series with Northeastern holding a 12-10-3 edge during the first ten-years. Madigan had a 174-139-39 record during that 10-year period. Bazin is 215-119-33 at UMass Lowell during that same stretch of time. The Huskies won two Hockey East Tournament Championships and UMass Lowell has earned the trophy three times.
FAMILY CONNECTION
Northeastern defenseman Jordan Harris is the son of former UMass Lowell goalie Peter Harris. The elder Harris played in 16 games between 1986 and 1990 with a 4.56 goals against average and a 4-5-1 record. Peter Harris was drafted by the New York Islanders. His son, Jordan, is a Montreal Canadiens draft pick.
Vs. CITY OF BOSTON
With UMass Lowell's 3-2 win at Boston College last Friday the River Hawks are 6-0-0 against teams based in Boston. The team has swept the season series from both Boston College and Boston University in the same year for the first time ever. The club is 2-0-0 with a game to play against Northeastern. A victory against Hounds of Huntington Avenue would give UMass Lowell a clean sweep of the city of Boston for the first time.
LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION
UMass Lowell and Northeastern have faced one another on eight different ice surfaces. The two have battled at the Tsongas Center, Matthews Arena, Tully Forum (Billerica, Mass.), Fenway Park, Thompson Arena (Hanover, N.H.), Boston Garden, TD Garden and the SSE Arena in Belfast, Northern Ireland in 2015. UMass Lowell has played Boston College and New Hampshire in nine different buildings. UMass Lowell has played Maine and Clarkson in ten different buildings.
AT MATTHEWS ARENA
UMass Lowell and Northeastern two weeks ago played at the Matthews Arena. It was UMass Lowell's 65th game at the Matthews Arena. The River Hawks have only visited two buildings more often, Maine's Alfond Arena in Orono and Merrimack's Lawler Arena in North Andover, Mass. The River Hawks are 30-23-6 against Northeastern at the Matthews and also played Boston College at the Matthews when the Conte Forum was under construction. In all UMass Lowell has 32 wins at the Matthews Arena. That is the second most wins in any opponents building. Only at Merrimack's Lawler Rink have the River Hawks won more often, 37 times. Opening in 1910 the Matthews Arena is the oldest continuously operating indoor ice rink in the world.
THE COACH AS A PLAYER AT MATTHEWS
UMass Lowell Head Coach
Norm Bazin scored his first collegiate goal at the Matthews Arena. That goal came on November 9, 1990, at the 1:06 mark of the second period. It cut Northeastern's lead to 4-3 in a game that would eventually go in the books as an 8-8 tie, the highest scoring tie in program history. Dave Pensa and Tim Smallwood picked up the assists on Bazin's first goal. It was also Bazin's first collegiate point.
IN NHL BUILDINGS
The Matthews Arena where UMass Lowell and Northeastern played last night was the original home ice for the NHL's Boston Bruins and later the WHA's New England Whalers, known now-a-days as the Carolina Hurricanes. At the time it operated as the Boston Arena. The River Hawks have a 48-45-10 record in buildings that have been the home to an NHL team. UMass Lowell is 9-9-1 in the TD Garden/Fleet Center, 4-5-0 in the old Boston Garden, 1-2-0 at the CONSOL Energy Center, 1-0-1 at the HSBC Arena in Buffalo, 2-3-2 at the XL Center and 32-25-6 in the Matthews Arena.
SCOUTING THE WILDCATS
New Hampshire is 12-13-1 / 6-10-1 as the team heads to Vermont for a Friday night game with the Catamounts. They dropped games last weekend to Merrimack and UConn and having a losing streak that has reached three. The Wildcats are in ninth place in the Hockey East standings, one-point back of Boston College, but ten back of seventh-place Northeastern. The Wildcats are 8-4-1 at the Whittemore Center, 3-9-0 on the road and 1-0-0 in neutral site games. The Hockey East Coaches pre-season poll parked New Hampshire in eighth place. Seventeen different players have scored goals, five have five or more. Jackson Pierson leads the team with 11-goals and 18-points. Tyler Ward is second in scoring with 14-points and leads the team with eleven-assists. Goalie Mike Robinson has started twenty of the team's twenty-six games. He's got a 2.37 goals against average and a .911 save percentage. David Fessenden has made nine-appearances including six starts. He's got 2.28/.904 numbers.
ALL-TIME SERIES VS. NEW HAMPSHIRE
This is the first of three meetings between these two teams this season and the 129th meeting in a series that dates back to 1983. UNH leads the series 65-45-18, but UML has won thirteen of the last twenty-three, including four by shutout. New Hampshire swept the series a year ago after UMass Lowell took three of four points from the Wildcats during the previous season. 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
New Hampshire swept the season series winning a pair of wildly different one-goal games. Jackson Pierson and Tyler Ward scored goals and Mike Robinson made 25 saves as New Hampshire defeated UMass Lowell, 2-1, at the Tsongas Center in the season's first contest.
Charlie Levesque's second period goal cut UNH's lead to a single goal, but the River Hawks got no closer.
Matt Brown was stopped by Robinson on a third period penalty shot. The second meeting, the following night, saw the two teams combine for 13-goals on only 58 shots. The River Hawks held a 6-3 third period lead but fell 7-6 in overtime. Angus Crookshank was the star of the night; he scored four Wildcat goals including the tying and winning markers.
NOT THE FRIENDLY CONFINES
UMass Lowell has not had the greatest success at the Whittemore Center where the two teams will play on Sunday afternoon. The River Hawks are only 11-27-4, .310, 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 7-5-0 at the Whittemore Center during the
Norm Bazin Era.
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 7-5-0 record at the Whittemore Center.
ABOUT LAST WEEKEND
UMass Lowell picked up a pair of wins against different foes and in different fashion last weekend. The River Hawks came from behind to earn a 3-2 win last Friday night at Boston College. Trailing 2-1 in the third period the River Hawks got a short-handed goal from
Owen Cole, the first goal of his collegiate career, to tie the score.
Zach Kaiser added the game winner with just a 1:45 remaining on the clock.
Owen Savory earned the win with 24-saves. Saturday night took down Dartmouth 6-3 with five different players scoring goals and twelve players earning points.
Connor Sodergren led the way with a pair of goals,
Andre Lee had a goal and two-assists. Savory got the win with 13-saves and an assist.
GOALIE JOINS THE OFFENSE
A bit of a rarity. UMass Lowell goalie
Owen Savory picked up an assist in the UMass Lowell 6-3 win against Dartmouth. The assist came on a goal by
Brian Chambers tying the game at one. It was the first assist by a River Hawk goalie since
Tyler Wall picked up a point on a
Ryan Dmowski goal, March 6, 2019, in a 6-4 win against Boston University in the Hockey East Tournament. It was the fourth assist of Savory's career. The first three came as a member of the Rensselaer hockey program. Marty Fillion and Craig Lindsay top the UMass Lowell goal scoring list. Each had six assists during their collegiate careers.
2,001 AND COUNTING
Goalie
Owen Savory passed the 2,000-save mark in UMass Lowell's 6-3 win against Dartmouth. Savory made thirteen saves in the contest and number twelve was the milestone. Savory is now at 2,001-saves in his career. As a River Hawk the senior goalie has stopped 607 shots. The first 1,394 saves came while playing his college hockey at Rensselaer.
DEFENDER OF THE WEEK
UMass Lowell defenseman
Brehdan Engum was named the Hockey East Defender of the Week after strong performances in wins against Boston College and Dartmouth. Engum earned two assists, blocked three shots and earned a plus-five rating in the two games. On Friday, Engum doled out an assist on
Owen Cole's game-tying shorthanded goal. He then dished another helper on
Andre Lee's empty netter to cap the Saturday's 6-3 victory.
To purchase single game tickets, learn about group ticketing opportunities or unlock deep discounts with season tickets, visit www.GoRiverHawks.com/tickets or contact Tyler Kenney at Tyler_Kenney@uml.edu / (978) 934-5739
