Wednesday at Merrimack College: Live Stats | Watch (ESPN+) | Watch (Int'l) | Listen | Game Notes
Saturday v Merrimack College: Live Stats | Watch (ESPN+) | Watch (Int'l) | Listen | Game Notes
LOWELL, Mass.— The UMass Lowell hockey team (4-6-0, 1-5-0 Hockey East) will follow up last week's series with No. 8 Boston University with a home-and-home set with Merrimack College (4-5-0, 2-3-0 Hockey East) this week, beginning on the road, Wednesday, November 15 at 7:00 p.m. Game two will take place at the Tsongas Center three days later on Saturday, November 18, and is scheduled for 6:05 p.m.
SCOUTING THE RIVER HAWKS
UMass Lowell enters the two-game, home-and-home set with Merrimack after finishing 0-2-0 last weekend against Boston University. The River Hawks' comeback effort fell short in game one, 3-2, before falling 6-1 in Saturday's game two. All three UMass Lowell goals during the series were scored by defensemen, as freshman
Ben Brunette scored his first career goal in game one, along with junior
Isac Jonsson. In game two, it was freshman
Adam Cardona who scored his first collegiate goal in the third period. Sophomore
Scout Truman and junior
Owen Cole each had an assist on each of the River Hawks' two goals in game one, while freshman
Jaiden Moriello and sophomore
Dillan Bentley had the helpers on Cardona's goal in game two, giving Moriello the first point of his career.
Cole (3g, 7a) and Truman (2g, 8a) are currently tied for the team lead with 10 points, while junior
Matt Crasa (6g, 2a) is just behind them with eight. Defensively,
TJ Schweighardt and
Isac Jonsson are the top two in blocked shots with 20 and 11, respectively, while Crasa, Truman and senior captain
Ben Meehan are atop the team with a +6 rating.
After losing some marquee names from the 2022-23 lineup, the River Hawks bolstered their stacked roster of 20 returners with three experienced transfers and eight talented freshmen eager to contribute. They also return two of their top 5 point-getters from a year ago in defensemen
Isac Jonsson and
Ben Meehan, while
Henry Welsch returns between the pipes and has a 2-3-0 record with a GAA of 2.21 and SV% of .927. His counterpart, junior transfer
Luke Pavicich, has also started five games, posting a 2-3-0 record, 2.80 GAA and .910 SV%. The team was picked to finish seventh in the Hockey East Preseason Poll with 62 points.
SCOUTING THE WARRIORS
Merrimack enters the series with the River Hawks after a home-and-home split against UConn last week. The Warriors picked up a 6-3 victory in game one, before falling short, 4-3, in game two. They opened the season with a road game at Sacred Heart, defeating them 3-2 in overtime to get their first win of the season. Their first loss of the season came the next week at Arizona State, where they dropped both games of their two-game series, 0-1 (OT) and 4-2. They bounced back with three consecutive wins against Clarkson, St. Lawrence, and Hockey East foe Northeastern. They then hosted Maine for a two-game set, dropping both before last week's split with UConn.
Zach Bookman holds the solo team lead with 13 points through 9 games thus far (2g, 11a), while Matt Copponi (3g, 8a) is just behind him with 11 and Alex Jefferies (5g, 3a) rounds out the top three with eight points. Bookman's 13 points are also good for a tie for the sixth-most in the country, while his 11 assists are tied for the third-most. Mac Welsher's +6 rating leads the Warriors, as well. Goaltenders Zachary Borgiel and Hugo Ollas have started five and four games, respectively, for the Warriors. Borgiel has a GAA of 2.55 in his five starts with a SV% of .910 and 2-3-0 record, while Ollas has posted a record of 2-2-0 thus far, with a 2.36 GAA and .910 SV%.
Coming off a 23-14-1 season last year and a trip to the NCAA Tournament, the Terriers return three of their top-5 point-getters from last season in Jefferies, Copponi and Ben Brar.
UMASS LOWELL HISTORY VS MERRIMACK
The River Hawks have seen quite a bit of success against Merrimack throughout program history, registering an 83-45-12 (.636) all-time mark against the Warriors. Last season, UMass Lowell concluded the year with a 0-3-0 record against them. Merrimack swept the River Hawks with 5-3 and 2-0 victories in late February, before picking up a 2-1 overtime win in the Hockey East Semifinals on March 17.
CHASING 300
Head Coach Norm Bazin is just four wins away from his 300th overall as a collegiate head coach. He currently has 296 wins, dating back to the 2008-09 season, when he became a head coach at Hamilton College.
AT THE DOT
UMass Lowell currently ranks 31st in the nation at the faceoff dot going into this weekend's slate. The River Hawks have won 318 of their 628 faceoffs taken for a .506 faceoff win percentage through their first 10 games. Leading the charge for UMass Lowell is freshman Jak Vaarwerk, who has a faceoff win percentage of .564 with 75 wins. Not far behind is sophomore Dillan Bentley, who has collected a .555 faceoff win percentage with 85 wins.
STAYING HOME
Just three River Hawks hail from the state of Massachusetts in senior captain
Ben Meehan, sophomore
Owen Fowler and freshman
Jaiden Moriello. Meehan is from Walpole and is the son of former River Hawk Scott Meehan, while Fowler came to Lowell by way of Tewksbury and Moriello hails from Saugus.
IN THE POLLS
After a 0-2-0 weekend against BU, the River Hawks are no longer receiving votes in both the USCHO and USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine polls for the first time this season. Merrimack is also no longer receiving votes in the polls.
A WIN WEDNESDAY…
A win on Wednesday would move the River Hawks to a 5-6-0 record on the season and an 84-45-12 record all-time against the Warriors. It would be their first win over Merrimack since March 12, 2022, when they defeated the Warriors 7-2 in the Hockey East Quarterfinals.
UP NEXT
Next weekend, the River Hawks will host the Turkey Leg Classic at the Tsongas Center, beginning the day after Thanksgiving, on Friday, November 24. They will take on Bentley on Friday at 4:05 p.m., followed by a game against Army the next day at the same time.
