Saturday vs. Merrimack: Live Stats | Watch (ESPN+) | Listen | Game Notes
LOWELL, Mass. – The UMass Lowell ice hockey team (3-1-0, 0-0-0 Hockey East) will hope to continue their hot start to the 2024-25 season on Saturday evening, when they open up Hockey East play against Merrimack (1-2-1, 0-0-1 Hockey East) at Lawler Arena at 7:00 p.m.
SCOUTING THE RIVER HAWKS
UMass Lowell entered the 2024-25 season coming off an 8-24-4 campaign that saw the River Hawks enter the Hockey East Tournament as the #11 seed. The team has graduate a handful of players and have bolstered their lineup of 17 returners with 15 newcomers, including seven transfers and eight freshmen. Of those transfers, five are graduate students and two are juniors. The team kicked off the 2024-25 season in the ninth spot in the Hockey East Preseason Poll with 40 points. Nationally, in the USCHO poll, they are currently receiving the second-most votes, with 41.
UMass Lowell enters this game with Merrimack after hosting Colgate for a two-game set, where the squad swept to move to 3-1-0. The River Hawks' offense exploded for a 5-2 victory in game one, with five different goal-scorers. They earned a hard-fought 2-1 win in game two, with goals from
Scout Truman and
Owen Cole. Cole (2g, 0a),
Chris Delaney (1g, 1a) and
Jak Vaarwerk (0g, 2a) all collected multi-point weeks while
Henry Welsch went 2-0-0 in net for the River Hawks with a 1.50 GAA and .936 save percentage.
SCOUTING THE WARRIORS
The Warriors enter the weekend with a 1-2-1 overall record, after opening their season back on October 6 against Stonehill. They fell to Stonehill, 3-2, before splitting a two-game series at Minnesota State last weekend. They earned a 1-0 shutout victory in game one before dropping game two 4-1.
The Warriors are coming off a 13-21-1 year where they fell to Northeastern in the Hockey East Tournament First Round. They return three of their top six point-scorers from 2023-24 in junior Zach Bookman, sophomore Ty Daneault and senior Mark Hillier. Bookman finished second in points with 28 (4g, 24a), while Daneault finished fourth with 21 (13g, 8a) and Hillier tied for fifth with 19 (7g, 12a). In terms of goaltenders, the team did not return any from last year's roster. This season, the team has played two freshmen between the pipes, in addition to senior student equipment manager intern, Spencer Marquis, who the team needed to play in game one due to injuries and ineligibility. Freshman Max Lundgren has led the way so far, appearing in two games and going 1-1-0 with a 2.00 GAA and .922 save percentage.
The Warriors have nine different players that are tied with the team lead with one point each. Daneault, Seamus Powell, Antonio Venuto and Tyler Young are the four goal scorers for the squad.
AT THE DOT
UMass Lowell currently ranks 28th in the nation at the faceoff dot going into this weekend's slate. The River Hawks have won 125 of their 242 faceoffs taken for a .517 faceoff win percentage through their first four games.
FACING OFF AGAINST THE HOME STATE
Just four River Hawks hail from the state of Massachusetts. Graduate students
Ben Meehan (Walpole, Mass.) and
Ian Carpentier (Worcester, Mass.), sophomore
Jaiden Moriello (Saugus, Mass.) and freshman
Chris Delaney (Hopkinton, Mass.) will be going against a school from their home state this weekend.
UMASS LOWELL vs. MERRIMACK
The River Hawks have seen quite a bit of success against Merrimack throughout program history, registering an 84-45-13 (.640) all-time mark against the Warriors. Last season, UMass Lowell concluded the year with a 1-0-1 record against them. The teams played to a 1-1 tie on November 15, 2023, with Merrimack winning the shootout 1-0, before the River Hawks defeated the Warriors 3-2 in OT on November 18 at the Tsongas Center.
IN THE POLLS
After a 2-0-0 weekend against Colgate, the River Hawks are now receiving the second-most votes in the USCHO poll, with 41.
A WIN TODAY...
A win today would move the River Hawks to a 4-1-0 record on the season and an 85-45-13 record all-time against the Warriors. Head Coach
Norm Bazin would also move to a 17-11-5 career mark against Merrimack. This would also extend UMass Lowell's active win streak to four games.
UP NEXT
Next, the River Hawks will travel to Holy Cross on Friday, November 1 for a standalone matchup at 7:00 p.m.
