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LOWELL, Mass.— The UMass Lowell ice hockey team (7-16-2, 3-10-1 Hockey East) will host #1 Boston College (18-4-1, 11-3-1 Hockey East), on Friday night, February 2. Puck drop is scheduled for 7:15 p.m. at the Tsongas Center.
SCOUTING THE RIVER HAWKS
UMass Lowell enters the one-game set with Boston College after a series with Providence last weekend, where they finished 0-2-0 and gained one point in the conference standings after a 4-3 overtime loss in game two. In game one at home, the squad could not complete their comeback effort, falling 7-2 to the Friars.
Owen Cole (9g, 7a) and
Scout Truman (5g, 11a) sit atop the team in points with 16 each, while sophomore Nick Rhéaume (9g, 4a) is tied with Cole for the team-lead in goals and is just behind them with 13 points. Defensively,
TJ Schweighardt and
Brehdan Engum are the top two in blocked shots with 37 and 31, respectively.
Mitchell Becker's +3 rating leads the squad, while Truman is second with a +2 rating, and three players are tied with a +1 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 Jonsson and Meehan, while
Henry Welsch returns between the pipes and has a 4-7-2 record with a GAA of 2.19 and SV% of .920. His counterpart, junior transfer
Luke Pavicich has started 13 games, posting a 3-9-0 record, 3.73 GAA and .881 SV%. The team was picked to finish seventh in the Hockey East Preseason Poll with 62 points.
SCOUTING THE EAGLES
BC enters the game with the River Hawks after a two-game sweep of the then #2 Boston University Terriers. The Eagles ran away with a 4-1 victory in game one, before winning a tightly contested game two, 4-3. Their four losses on the season came at the hands of Denver (10/21/23), Maine (11/10/23), Northeastern (12/01/23) and Providence (01/13/24), while their one tie was against Maine on November 11.
Gabe Perreault (9g, 27a) leads the team with 36 points, while Will Smith (14g, 20a) and Cutter Gauthier (19g, 13a) are just behind him with 34 and 32 points, respectively. Ryan Leonard ranks first on the team with a +18 rating, while Perreault boasts a +15 rating for the team's second-best. Goaltender Jacob Fowler has started all 23 games for the Eagles, boasting an 18-4-1 record. He has a GAA of 2.25 with a SV% of .924.
Coming off a 14-16-6 season last year and a loss to Merrimack in the Hockey East Quarterfinals, the Eagles are succeeding in their efforts to improve in 2023-24, already passing their win total from a year ago.
UMASS LOWELL HISTORY VS. BOSTON COLLEGE
The River Hawks have seen quite a bit of Boston College throughout program history, registering a 45-71-11 (.398) all-time mark against the Eagles. Last season, UMass Lowell concluded the year with a 0-1-1 record against them. The draw ended in a thrilling shootout victory for the River Hawks. This season, they are 0-2-0 against the Eagles in two one-goal games.
AGAINST THE #1 TEAM
This series will mark the 27th and 28th time the River Hawks have played against the #1 team in the nation in their history. They haven't had the best luck in these matchups, posting a 2-22-2 overall record. Of the 26 games they have played against the top team in the nation, the River Hawks have been ranked for seven of them, going 0-6-1 in those games. Their two wins both came on the road, in an October 11, 2019 game at the then-number one team Minnesota Duluth and again in the 2021 Hockey East Semifinals against, oddly enough, the Boston College Eagles in two overtimes. At home at the Tsongas, the River Hawks are 0-8-1 against the nation's top team, while going 0-2-0 at neutral sites.
Teams that UMass Lowell has played at the time of a #1 ranking along with Minnesota Duluth and Boston College include Quinnipiac, New Hampshire, Boston University and Maine.
CHASING 300
Head Coach
Norm Bazin is just one win away from his 300th overall as an NCAA collegiate head coach. He currently has 299 wins, dating back to the 2008-09 season, when he became a head coach at Hamilton College. If Bazin and the River Hawks can get the win on Friday, Bazin will reach the impressive accolade.
COLE STREAK
Owen Cole has been on fire as of late, and has now scored a goal six of the last seven games. He is the first River Hawks since since
Ryan Dmowski in 2019 to pot goals in five consecutive games, doing so against AIC, Omaha, Harvard, and against Maine twice.
AT THE DOT
UMass Lowell currently ranks 27th in the nation at the faceoff dot going into this weekend's slate. The River Hawks have won 777 of their 1,523 faceoffs taken for a .510 faceoff win percentage through their first 25 games Leading the charge for UMass Lowell is Sophomore
Dillan Bentley, who has a faceoff win percentage of .560 with a 173 -136 record. Not far behind is freshman
Jak Vaarwerk, who has collected a .515 faceoff win percentage, going 170-160.
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 is from Saugus.
IN THE POLLS
Boston College is currently ranked #1 in both the USCHO poll and the USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine Poll, while the River Hawks are currently unranked. In the pairwise rankings, the River Hawks sit at #36 compared to the Eagles' #1 ranking.
A WIN FRIDAY…
A win on Friday would move the River Hawks to an 8-16-2 record on the season and a 46-71-11 record all-time against the Eagles. A win would also give the River Hawks a 4-10-1 record against Hockey East opponents and hand Coach Bazin his 300th victory as a collegiate head coach.
UP NEXT
After this series, the River Hawks will move on to host Vermont for a two-game home series on Friday and Saturday, February 9 and 10. Game one is scheduled for 7:15 p.m., while Saturday's game two will be at 6:05 p.m.
