Friday v. No. 19 Providence: Live Stats | Watch | Listen | Game Notes
Saturday at No. 19 Providence: Live Stats | Watch | Listen
 
LOWELL, Mass.—The No. 16 UMass Lowell men's hockey team (16-8-3, 12-7-1 Hockey East) looks to regain momentum this weekend with a pair of games against No. 19 Providence (18-12-2, 9-10-1 HEA). The River Hawks open the two-game series at home on Friday, Feb. 18, at 7:15 p.m., before traveling to Schneider Arena on Saturday, Feb. 19, for a 7 p.m. puck drop.
 
SCOUTING THE RIVER HAWKS
UMass Lowell enters tonight's game with an 16-8-3 / 12-7-1 record after dropping a 4-2 decision to Northeastern at the Tsongas Center on Friday night and then failing to score in a 3-0 loss at New Hampshire on Sunday.  The River Hawks are 8-5-0 on the road and 8-3-3 on the familiar ice of the Tsongas Center.  UMass Lowell currently sits in the number 16 slot in the DCU/USCHO Poll and is receiving votes in the USA Hockey Magazine Poll.  It is the team's 14th week in the Top 20.  Hockey East Coaches, in their pre-season poll, placed the River Hawks seventh in the conference.  UMass Lowell currently sits in a first-place tie with Massachusetts.  The Minutemen have a two games in hand.  Boston University and UConn sit in third place two points back of the leaders.  Andre Lee leads the team in goals with a thirteen and points with twenty-one.  Carl Berglund is second in points with twenty.  Berglund's sixteen-assists lead the club.  Allowing 2.11-goals per game the River Hawks are the second stingiest team in the conference.  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 twenty-one times and has been among the nation's best.  He's got a 1.85 GAA and a .925 save percentage.  The senior has four shutouts.  Welsch has started six times with one shutout and a 2.66 GAA and a .893 save percentage.
 
SCOUTING THE FRIARS
Providence is 18-12-2 / 9-10-1 after dropping a 4-1 decision to Boston University eight days ago.  The Friars are in seventh place in the Hockey East standings, but only seven points behind the leaders.  The club has been in the national polls for most of the season, but currently is parked in the number 19 spot in the USCHO Poll.  Hockey East coaches had forecast a fifth-place finish for the club in the pre-season poll.  Providence is 10-4-1 at the Schneider Arena, 7-7-0 on the road and 1-1-1 in neutral site games.  At 3.17-goals per game the Friars are the second highest scoring team in Hockey East.  Twenty different players have scored goals, three are in double digits.  Brett Berard leads the scoring parade with 14-goals and 33-points.  Parker Ford and Patrick Moynihan are next in goals with 12 and 11 respectively.  Nick Poisson is second in points with 32.  Goalie Jaxson Stauber has started all but one of the team's 32 games.  He's played strong with a 2.08 Goals Against Average and a .924 save percentage.
 
ALL-TIME SERIES vs. PROVIDENCE
This is the 123rd meeting between the two schools in a series that dates back to 1982.  Providence leads the series 62-49-11.  The River Hawks lost the lone game between the two last year after winning two of three contests the year before. Providence swept the two-game season series in each of the three previous seasons and hold a 8-3-0 edge in the last eight.  Providence also has an edge, 16-11-0, since Norm Bazin and Nate Leaman became the respective Head Coaches in 2011-12.  The teams have met seven times in the Hockey East Tournament totaling 11 games with UML holding a 7-3-1 edge and moving into the next round five times.  UMass Lowell also won the 2012-13 regular season Hockey East title in the season finale at the Schneider Arena.
 
LAST YEAR
UMass Lowell opened the much delayed season December 13th with a 4-2 loss to Providence.  The visitors scored two power play goals and an empty net tally to erase a 2-1 UML third period lead.  Matt Brown and Reid Stefanson were the River Hawk scorers.  Stefanson's goal came just 14-seconds into the third period, one of the fastest goals from the start of a period but not the fastest.  That honor goes to Danny Craig who scored 5-seconds into the second period in a 9-4 win against Vermont at the Tully Forum in 1984.  Among the Friars' four goal scorers Nick Poisson and Michael Callahan are still on the roster.
 
THE YEAR BEFORE
UMass Lowell took two of three against Providence during the 2019-20 season.  Each team was a winner on the road as the River Hawks won a pair of one-goal games in the Schneider Area, each by the score of 3-2, and the Friars took a 4-1 decision at the Tsongas Center.  In the first meeting, October 26th, in Providence, freshmen Matt Brown, Zach Kaiser and Carl Berglund scored for the visitors.  Berglund's game winner came with just 40-seconds remaining in the overtime period.  Senior goalie Tyler Wall made 40 saves.  In the second visit to Providence, on December 6th, Wall made 35 saves as the River Hawks overcame a two-goal deficit and defeated Providence, 3-2.  Kenny Hausinger's penalty shot goal late in the first period narrowed the Friar lead to a goal.  Connor Sodergren and Charlie Levesque scored goals in the first 2:03 of the third period to give the River Hawks a lead they would never relinquish.  Providence took the final meeting between the two, 4-1.
 
AT THE SCHNEIDER ARENA
UMass Lowell has played Providence tough when on the Friars' home ice.  Providence has an edge, but no a big one, 31-25-4, and the River Hawks have won the last two games at the Schneider Arena.  One of UMass Lowell's biggest win also came in the building.  UMass Lowell defeated Providence, 4-1, in the 2012-13 regular season finale in the Schneider Arena to win its first ever Hockey East regular season crown.  With Josh Holmstrom getting the game winner, the River Hawks scored three third period goals one and the PK unit went 10-for-10.  UMass Lowell went on to win its first Hockey East Championship in the Playoff Tournament that followed.
 
NORM and NATE
UMass Lowell Head Coach Norm Bazin and Providence Head Coach Nate Leaman took over behind their respective benches nearly eleven years ago and since that time have combined for more than 450 wins.  Bazin shows a record of 231-127-36 while Leaman is 221-134-51.  Leaman holds a slight edge in head-to-head matches, 16-11-0.
 
SCORING AGAINST PROVIDENCE
Just four different players on the River Hawk roster have scored goals against Providence.  Connor Sodergren has played eight games against the Friars and with two goals is the only player with multiple goals.  Carl Berglund, Zach Kaiser and Reid Stefanson each have one.  Berglund and Andre Lee top the points chart with three.  None of the UMass Lowell goaltenders have ever faced Providence.
 
ABOUT LAST WEEKEND
With six-points on the line last weekend UMass Lowell came up empty-handed in games against Northeastern and New Hampshire.  Friday night at the Tsongas Center the River Hawks battled from two-goals down but could not get over the hump eventually losing a 4-2 decision to Northeastern.  Down 2-0 after the 1st period Jon McDonald scored in the second period and Owen Cole added a third period marker to even the score, but UML could not get one more and Northeastern did.  Tommy Miller's third period goal proved to be the game winner.  The Huskies added an empty net goal for the 4-2 final.  Sunday afternoon in Durham, New Hampshire the offense never got rolling as the team was shutout for the first time this season, 3-0.
 
GOT THE TIEBREAKER
Despite the Northeastern 4-2 win last Friday night, UMass Lowell has the all-important tiebreaker with the Huskies.  The River Hawks won the first two meetings between the teams by a pair of 2-1 scores, once in overtime and once in regulation.
 
AT BEANPOT TIME
Beanpot time has not been good for UMass Lowell.  When UMass Lowell is facing one of the Beanpot teams during the week in between tournament games, they are 5-15-2, but 4-6-1 at home. Against Northeastern, who topped UML on Friday night, they are 1-4-2, but 1-2-1 at home. When the River Hawks are facing a team that will be playing in the Beanpot Championship Game, they are 3-9-0, 3-5-0 at home.
 
44 GAMES WITHOUT
UMass Lowell senior defenseman Jon McDonald found the back of the net last Friday night.  The goal was his first of the year, but more than that it ended a 44-game goal scoring drought.  McDonald's last goal came on February 28, 2020, at New Hampshire tying the game at two with 0:57 remaining.
 
A WIN TODAY…
A win today would allow UMass Lowell to hold onto at least a piece of first place.  They enter the evening tied for first with UMass in the Hockey East standings.  It would push the UMass Lowell record to 17-8-3 (.685), the third most wins through 28-games.
 
TONIGHT'S PROMOTION
Tonight at the Tsongas Center is Francis College of Engineering Night.  Mark Russell from the Class of 1983 will officiate at the ceremonial puck drop.  Russell leads Technology & Global Engineering for Raytheon Technologies. He guides the company's overall technological vision and strategy, including its engineering operations and its investments in research and development.  The game kicks off Engineering Week on the UMass Lowell campus and will feature the ever-popular sled race with teams from each of the engineering concentrations, plus a faculty team, competing during the second intermission.
 
WHO'S NEXT...?
UMass Lowell and Providence will wrap up their regular season series on Saturday night with a contest at the Schneider Arena.  The River Hawks have won their last two visits to Providence, both by 3-2 scores.  Next weekend UMass Lowell will face Long Island University for the second time ever.  The first meeting ever, earlier this year, ended as a 3-3 tie.
 
WHAT'S LEFT...?
Including today UMass Lowell has five games remaining on the schedule, four against Hockey East opponents UNH and Providence and one against Long Island University, an independent.  Of the three only Providence has a winning record, 18-12-2.  The five remaining games are against teams combining for a 70-68-9 record, a .507 winning percentage.
 
ATTENDANCE
After a year with no spectators UMass Lowell continues to show that it can attract a crowd.  The River Hawks are averaging 4,414 fans at the Tsongas Center.  That puts UMass Lowell on top of the Hockey East Attendance leader board and ranks them 11th in the country.  Massachusetts with 4,346 is second Hockey East.  North Dakota, 11,399, is the national leader.
 
HOME SWEET HOME
UMass Lowell has been beaten just three times at the Tsongas Center this season, but those three losses have come in the last five home games.  The team is 8-3-3 on the familiar ice this season after winning just four of its ten home games (4-5-1) a year ago.  That was the first time the River Hawks have had a losing record at home since 2010-11 when the home team went 4-12-0.  The River Hawks are 110-55-24 (a .646 winning percentage) at the Tsongas Center since Norm Bazin took over behind the bench for the 2011-12 season.  That .646 winning percentage is eleventh best in the country.  The national average over that span of time is .561.  That includes a 13-9-0 record in playoff games.

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