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LOWELL, Mass. – After a 4-1-0 start to the 2024-25 season and a Hockey East victory against Merrimack last weekend, the UMass Lowell ice hockey team (4-1-0, 1-0-0 Hockey East) will travel to Holy Cross (3-4-0, 2-2-0 Atlantic Hockey) Friday night for a standalone matchup at the Hart Center Rink in Worcester, Mass.
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. Through five games this season, they hold a 4-1-0 record (1-0-0 Hockey East). Nationally, in the USCHO poll, they are currently ranked No. 20, while ranking No. 19 in the USA Hockey poll.
UMass Lowell enters this game with Holy Cross after opening Hockey East play last weekend with a standalone game at Merrimack, where the squad picked up a 6-3 victory. The River Hawks' offense exploded with six different goal-scorers.
Owen Cole had a great performance, tallying four total points off one goal and three assists.
Dillan Bentley,
Chris Delaney,
Connor Eddy,
Isac Jonsson and
Ian Carpentier all picked up one goal each, as well. Welsch won his fourth consecutive game between the pipes to go 4-0-0 on the year, making 14 saves.
SCOUTING THE CRUSADERS
The Crusaders enter the weekend with a 3-4-0 overall record, after opening their season back on October 5 against Boston University. They fell to the Terriers, 5-2, before splitting a two-game series against UConn the next weekend. They then went 2-2-0 in their last four games against Army and Sacred Heart.
The Warriors are coming off a 21-14-4 year where they fell to AIC in the Atlantic Hockey Tournament Semifinals. They return two of their top five point-scorers from 2023-24 in senior Liam McLinskey and sophomore Jack Stockfish. McLinskey led the team in points with 47 (19g, 28a), while Stockfish finished tied for fourth with 25 (9g, 16a). For goaltenders, the team returned Thomas Gale from last year's roster, who finished the year 8-8-2 with a 2.41 GAA and .917 save percentage in 19 appearances. This season, the team has turned to Gale in all games so far and he has collected a 3-4-0 record with a 2.47 GAA and .918 save percentage.
The Crusaders have two players tied with the team lead with six points each in Jack Seymour (3g, 3a) and Matt DeBoer (2g, 4a). Stockfish leads the team with four goals and is tied with McLinskey (2g, 3a) and Michael Abgrall (1g, 4a) with five total points.
AT THE DOT
UMass Lowell currently ranks 26th in the nation at the faceoff dot going into this weekend's slate. The River Hawks have won 165 of their 319 faceoffs taken for a .520 faceoff win percentage through their first five games.
FACING OFF AGAINST THE HOME STATE
Just four River Hawks hail from the state of Massachusetts. Graduate students
Ben Meehan (Walpole, Mass.), sophomore
Jaiden Moriello (Saugus, Mass.) and freshman
Chris Delaney (Hopkinton, Mass.) will be going against a school from their home state this weekend. Graduate student
Ian Carpentier (Worcester, Mass.) joins them and will face off against Holy Cross in his hometown of Worcester.
HOLY CROSS TIES
Graduate student
Jack Robilotti (New York, N.Y.) will be facing off against his former team this weekend. After a four-year career at Holy Cross, where he tallied 125 games played with six goals and 11 assists for 17 points, Robilotti transferred to UMass Lowell and has one assist in five games played. He also served as the Crusaders' assistant captain last year in his senior season.
UMASS LOWELL vs. HOLY CROSS
The River Hawks have seen quite a bit of success against Holy Cross throughout program history, registering a 21-5-1 (.796) all-time mark against the Crusaders. Their 21 wins against Holy Cross is their most against any single opponent that is not in Hockey East. Among teams that UMass Lowell has faced 10 or more times, their 21-5-1 record is their best against any active opponent, in any conference and they are 18-2-1 in their last 21 games against Holy Cross, dating back to December 7, 1971. Last season, UMass Lowell concluded the year with a 0-1-1 record against them. The teams played to a 2-2 tie on December 8, 2023, with UMass Lowell winning the shootout 2-0, before the River Hawks fell to the Crusaders, 4-2, the next night.
UMASS LOWELL VS. ATLANTIC HOCKEY
The River Hawks are 24-10-4 all-time against teams from Atlantic Hockey and its predecessor, the MAAC. The .684 winning percentage is their 2nd best against any of the current conferences, just behind the Big 10 (9-3-1, .731 vs Big 10). UMass Lowell went 0-4-1 against Atlantic Hockey last season, their most losses in a single season against one conference since 1999-2000, when they lost 4 games to ECAC teams.
IN THE POLLS
After a 1-0-0 weekend against Merrimack to secure a 4-1-0 start to the year, the River Hawks are now ranked in both the USCHO and USA Hockey polls for the first time since 2023. They rank 20
th in the nation in the USCHO poll and 19
th in the USA Hockey Poll.
A WIN TODAY...
A win today would move the River Hawks to a 5-1-0 record on the season and a 22-5-1 record all-time against the Crusaders. Head Coach
Norm Bazin would also move to a 1-1-1 career mark against Holy Cross. This would also extend UMass Lowell's active win streak to five games.
UP NEXT
Next, the River Hawks will return to Hockey East play to face off against #5 Boston University in a two-game, home-and-home series. They will visit the Terriers on Friday, November 8 at 7:00 p.m., before hosting them the next night at 6:05 p.m.
