Friday v. Colgate: Live Stats | Watch (ESPN+) | Listen | Game Notes
Saturday v. Colgate: Live Stats | Watch (ESPN+) | Listen | Game Notes
LOWELL, Mass.—The UMass Lowell men's hockey team (1-1-0, 0-0-0 Hockey East) will head directly west for their second straight road trip on October 20 and 21, to face off against non-conference foe Colgate (2-1-1, 0-0-0 ECAC) in a two-game set. Puck drop for both nights is slated for 7:00 p.m. EST.
SCOUTING THE RIVER HAWKS
UMass Lowell enters the weekend at Colgate two weeks after a trip to Alaska Anchorage, where the squad split their opening series to start off 1-1-0. The River Hawks fought back to force overtime in game one, with two third-period
Matt Crasa goals, but ultimately fell 3-2 in OT. The team bounced back the next night with a 2-1 win, returning home with a victory. Nick Rheaume and
Scout Truman each lit the lamp in game two, with assists from
Brehdan Engum,
Ben Meehan and freshman
Jak Vaarwerk. Crasa and
Owen Cole lead the River Hawks with two points each, as Cole assisted Crasa's two goals in the opener, along with an
Isac Jonsson assist. Nick Rheaume and
Scout Truman each lit the lamp in game two, with assists from
Brehdan Engum,
Ben Meehan and freshman
Jak Vaarwerk. Heading into this weekend, Truman and Meehan sit atop the team with a +3 rating. On the defensive end,
TJ Schweighardt leads the way with four blocked shots for an average of 2.0 per game, while Jonsson and Vaarwerk are just behind him with two each.
After losing some marquee names from the 2022-23 lineup, the River Hawks bolstered their roster of 20 returners with three experienced transfers and eight talented freshmen eager to find their spot in the starting lineup. The team is currently receiving 17 votes in the USCHO poll and, in the conference, the River Hawks were picked to finish seventh with 62 points. Fans can expect to see some familiar faces on the ice this year in fifth-year captain Jake Stella and senior captain Ben Meehan.
Another familiar face for the River Hawks this season is senior netminder Henry Welsch. He enters the series with 35 career games played, along with a 13-16-2 record, 2.45 GAA and .904 SV%. He has started one game on the season, going 0-1-0 with a 2.87 GAA and .850 SV%. Junior transfer Luke Pavicich was in between the pipes for the River Hawks' 2-1 victory at Alaska Anchorage, collecting 21 saves. Combined with his two years at Massachusetts, the Clarence Center, N.Y. native has racked up 28 games played, with a 10-11-4 record, 2.59 GAA and .922 SV%.
SCOUTING THE RAIDERS
Colgate hosts the River Hawks after a successful two-game set last week against Sacred Heart. The Raiders swept the Pioneers with scores of 3-2 and 6-1, moving to 2-1-1. They opened up the season with a pair of games against one of the River Hawks' Hockey East foes UConn, dropping game one by a score of 4-2 and playing to a 3-3 tie in game two the next night. Ross Mitton holds the solo lead with five points through four games thus far (2g, 3a), while four players are tied for second with four points. Six players share the team lead with a +2 rating, as well. Goaltender Carter Gylander has started all four games for the Raiders thus far, compiling a 2-1-1 record, along with a 2.22 GAA and .918 SV%.
Coming off an 19-16-5 season last year and a ECAC Championship, the Raiders return just one of their top five point scorers from last season in Nick Anderson. They will look to Anderson, along with Alex DiPaolo and Ethan Manderville to spark the offense once again this season. Gylander returns to the Raiders' net after a standout year last season. The senior led that ECAC and placed fifth in the nation in saves with 1,044, breaking the program record for most in a season. Gylander recorded 13 games with 30 or more stops, including two 40-plus save games. He was named the ECAC Hockey Tournament Most Outstanding Player.
FIRST TIME FOR EVERYTHING
Friday's matchup with Colgate marks the first for any River Hawk in their career. The last time these two teams met was almost exactly four years ago, on October 18 and 19 of the 2019-20 season. The River Hawks hosted the Raiders for a two-game set, dropping the first game 4-3 in overtime, before playing to a 0-0 tie in game two to finish 0-1-1 on the series. The River Hawks went on to finish 18-10-6 compared to the Colgate 12-16-8 record, but the remainder of the season was canceled due to COVID-19.
PREVIOUSLY
The River Hawks paid a visit to The Last Fontier two weeks ago, for their first series of the season at Alaska Anchorage. The home team took game one in overtime 3-2, after the River Hawks mounted a third-period comeback to tie it at 2. UMass Lowell rebounded in epic fashion on night two with a hard-fought 2-1 win led by sophomores Nick Rhéaume and
Scout Truman. Freshman
Jak Vaarwerk picked up his first career point in the win, feeding Rhéaume on a 2-on-1 for the team's first goal of the game. Senior alternate captain
Brehdan Engum collected the secondary assist on the goal, while senior captain
Ben Meehan had the helper on Truman's goal. Junior transfer
Luke Pavicich impressed in his first career game as a River Hawk, getting his first win in the red and blue with 27 saves.
AT THE DOT
UMass Lowell currently ranks ninth in the nation at the faceoff dot going into this weekend's slate. The River Hawks have won 73 of their 131 faceoffs taken for a .557 faceoff win percentage through their first two games. Leading the charge for UMass Lowell, sophomore
Dillan Bentley, has a .636 faceoff win percentage with 14 wins. Not far behind, freshman
Jak Vaarwerk has a .594 faceoff win percentage with 19 wins.
FAMILIAR FACE
Colgate will see a familiar face behind the River Hawks bench when they take the ice this weekend. UMass Lowell's Associate Head Coach Andy Boschetto was an assistant coach at Colgate from 2020-2022. He helped the team to an 18-18-4 record in 2021-22 and an upset of No. 18 Cornell in the ECAC best-of-three quarterfinals, and also coached multiple All-ECAC players throughout his two seasons.
HOMECOMING
Five River Hawks hail from the state of New York in
Luke Pavicich (Clarence Center, N.Y.),
Jack Collins (Canton, N.Y.),
Matt Crasa (South Setauket, N.Y.),
Jak Vaarwerk (Clarence, N.Y.) and
Gabe Blanchard (East Aurora, N.Y.). They will be returning to their home state for the first and only game this season.
UMASS LOWELL vs the ECAC
The River Hawks have seen quite a bit of success against the ECAC throughout program history, registering a 111-73-17 (.585) all-time mark against teams that were in the ECAC at the time of playing them. Last season, UMass Lowell racked up a 3-0-0 record against the conference last season, defeating St. Lawrence (4-0) once and Dartmouth twice (4-3 OT, 3-2).
IN THE POLLS
After a 1-1-0 weekend against Alaska Anchorage, the River Hawks are still receiving votes in both the USCHO and USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine polls. They are receiving 17 votes in the USCHO and three votes in the USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine poll.
A WIN TODAY...
A win today would move the River Hawks to a 2-1-0 record on the season and an 14-8-1 record all-time against the Raiders. Head Coach
Norm Bazin would also move to a 4-1-1 career mark against Colgate. This would also extend UMass Lowell's active win streak to two games.
UP NEXT
The River Hawks open conference action next Friday, October 27 with a home and home against UConn. Puck drop is set for 7:15 p.m. at the Tsongas Center on Friday, with a 4:00 start at UConn the next night at the XL Center in Hartford, Conn.
