Wednesday at New Hampshire: Live Stats | Live on NESN | Watch (ESPN+) | Listen | International Stream | Game Notes
LOWELL, Mass.— After closing out the regular season against them just this past weekend, the #11 seed UMass Lowell ice hockey team (8-23-4, 4-17-3 Hockey East) will take on the #6 seed New Hampshire (19-14-1, 12-11-1 Hockey East) in the Hockey East Tournament Opening Round on Wednesday night. Puck drop is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. and the game will be streamed on NESN.
TOURNEY TIME
The River Hawks are making their 36th postseason appearance this weekend in the 40th annual Hockey East Tournament. Coming off a trip to the semifinals last year, UMass Lowell owns a 51-53-3 all-time mark in the tournament. The team returns to the Opening Round for the 3rd time in program history, where they are 1-2 all-time. In their last Opening Round, the River Hawks bested Vermont, 5-3, on home ice, eventually reaching the Hockey East Championship. Behind the bench, Head Coach
Norm Bazin is the winningest coach in the postseason amongst all active HEA head coaches, boasting a .641 win percentage. Bazin is 25-14 in his career in the HEA Tournament and has three Hockey East titles to his credit (2013, '14, '17). This season, the River Hawks have the No. 11 seed for the first time in program history.
SCOUTING THE RIVER HAWKS
UMass Lowell enters the first-round game after a home-and-home series with the Wildcats last weekend. The River Hawks fell short, 4-0, in both matchups.
Scout Truman (7g, 14a) finished the regular season atop the team with 21 points, while
Owen Cole (10g, 7a) is just behind him with 17. Vaarwerk moved to third on the team in points after his two-goal performance against Massachusetts, boasting 15 (5g, 10a). Defensively,
TJ Schweighardt and
Brehdan Engum are the top two in blocked shots with 54 and 46, respectively. Truman's +2 rating leads the squad, while
Adam Cardona and
Ben Brunette's +1 ratings give them a tie for second. Goaltenders
Henry Welsch and
Luke Pavicich have each started games for the River Hawks, with Welsch holding a 5-12-4 record, 2.52 GAA and .906 SV%. Pavicich has a 3-11-0 record with a GAA of 3.61 and SV% of .885. Before the season, the River Hawks were picked to finish seventh in the Hockey East Preseason Poll with 62 points.
SCOUTING THE WILDCATS
New Hampshire enters the series with the River Hawks after earning the sweep last weekend. They picked up a 4-0 shutout in both game one on Friday night and Saturday's game two.
Ryan Conmy (14g, 17a) leads the Wildcats with 31 points, while Cy LeClerc (10g, 18a) is just behind him with 28 points and Morgan Winters (10g, 12a) and Colton Huard (5g, 17a) rank tied for third with 22. Alex Gagne is first on the team with a +14 rating, while Conmy ranks second with a +11 rating. Defensively, Gagne and Luke Reid are atop the team in blocked shots, with 66 and 44, respectively. Goaltender Jakob Hellsten has started most games for New Hampshire, collecting a 14-11-1 record. He has a GAA of 2.01 with a SV% of .911.
UMASS LOWELL HISTORY VS NEW HAMPSHIRE
The River Hawks have seen quite a bit of New Hampshire throughout program history, registering a 49-69-18 all-time mark against the Wildcats. Last season, the River Hawks played them three times, finishing 2-1-0 against them. They first played a home-and-home series beginning on January 20, 2023, with the River Hawks earning the sweep with scores of 6-2 and 3-2. Game two was settled in over time. Just two weeks later, the two squads met again, as New Hampshire picked up a win of their own, 5-4. The Wildcats have the 2-0-0 edge during this 2023-24 season.
CELEBRATED THE SENIORS
Last Friday night's game against the Wildcats marked the final home game of the regular season for the River Hawks at the Tsongas Center. The team's graduating class of 2024 was honored before the game in a special ceremony with family members. This year,
Nick Granowicz,
Alex Peterson, Filip Fornåå Svensson,
Brehdan Engum,
Henry Welsch and
Ben Meehan were honored.
MR. 300
With a 4-2 victory over Northeastern on February 16, Head Coach
Norm Bazin officially earned his 300th overall win as an NCAA collegiate head coach. This dates back to the 2008-09 season, when he became a head coach at Hamilton College.
AT THE DOT
UMass Lowell currently ranks 32nd in the nation at the faceoff dot going into this Wednesday's game. The River Hawks have won 1,044 of their 2,078 faceoffs taken for a .503 faceoff win percentage through 35 games. Leading the charge for UMass Lowell is
Dillan Bentley, who has a faceoff win percentage of .542 with a 221-187 record. Not far behind is Vaarwerk, who has collected a .506 faceoff win percentage, going 245-239.
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. There are no River Hawks from the state of New Hampshire on the roster this season.
IN THE POLLS
New Hampshire is currently ranked 17th in both the USCHO.com poll and USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine poll, while sitting in 17th in the NCAA PairWise rankings. The River Hawks are currently unranked in the USCHO.com and USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine polls and sit at 34th in the NCAA PairWise rankings.
A WIN WEDNESDAY…
A win on Wednesday would give the River Hawks their ninth win of the season and fifth against a Hockey East opponent. It would also advance them to the Hockey East Quarterfinals against #1 seed Boston College and give them a 50-69-18 record all-time against the Wildcats.
