No. 7 River Hawks Hosting No. 10 New Hampshire for Hockey East Opening Round

Wednesday vs. New Hampshire: Live Stats | Watch (ESPN+) | Listen | Game Notes

LOWELL, Mass. – The 7^th-seeded UMass Lowell ice hockey team (15-15-4, 8-13-3 Hockey East) will host a Hockey East Opening Round game at the Tsongas Center against 10^th-seeded New Hampshire (13-15-6, 5-14-5 Hockey East) Wednesday evening at 7:05 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. Through 32 games this season, they hold a 15-13-4 record (8-11-3 Hockey East). Nationally, they rank #19 in the USCHO Poll and #17 in the USA Hockey Poll. In the Pairwise Rankings, they sit at #17.

UMass Lowell enters this weekend after an 0-2-0 weekend against New Hampshire. The squad droppped game one, 4-1, before falling short, 4-2, in Saturday's game two. Freshmen Lee Parks (1g, 1a) and Chris Delaney (0g, 2a) led the team with two points each.

At the moment, Owen Cole (8g, 12a) leads the way with 20 points, while Mirko Buttazzoni (5g, 13a) is just behind with 18 and Scout Truman is third with 17 (9g, 8a). Henry Welsch leads the two goaltenders with a 2.51 GAA and has a .900 save percentage, while Beni Halasz is also posting a productive season with a 2.57 GAA and .909 save percentage.

SCOUTING THE WILDCATS
The Wildcats enter the weekend with an 13-15-6 overall record (5-14-5 Hockey East), most recently going 2-0-0 last weekend against the River Hawks.

The Wildcats are coming off a 2023-24 season year where they finished 20-15-1 (12-11-1 Hockey East) and fell to Maine in the Hockey East Quarterfinal, 5-0. They return all of their top five point-scorers from 2023-24 in Ryan Conmy, Cy LeClerc, Morgan Winters, Colton Huard and Liam Devlin. Conmy (14g, 17a) led the way with 31 points, while LeClerc (10g, 18a) had 28 to ranks second. Winters (10g, 12a) and Huard (5g, 17a) tied for third with 22 points, while Devlin's (13g, 7a) 20 points ranked fifth. They did not return any goaltenders from last year's roster.

This season, Conmy leads the team with 32 points (15g, 17a), while Robert Cronin (16g, 11a) sits in second with 27 and LeClerc (7g, 19a) ranks third with 26. Devlin (9g, 14a) is just behind them with 23 points so far on the year.

UMASS LOWELL vs. NEW HAMPSHIRE
The River Hawks have seen a lot of New Hampshire throughout program history, registering a 49-72-18 (.417) all-time mark against the Wildcats. The two teams last played just four days ago on March 8, when the Wildcats picked up a 4-2 win.

SCORING AGAINST THE WILDCATS
28 players have now played at least one game against New Hampshire in their careers after last week. Ben Meehan leads the way with 13 games played, while Isac Jonsson leads in points against the Wildcats, tallying six (2g, 4a) in 11 games played. Meehan is next with three points on three assists against the Wildcats.

HOCKEY EAST TOURNAMENT HISTORY
UMass Lowell is 51-54-3 all-time in the Hockey East Tournament, with 3 Hockey East Tournament titles on their resume. They are just 1-3 in the Opening Round, 36-30-2 in the Quarterfinals, 9-13 in the semifinals, 2-3-1 in the consolation game, and 3-5 in the Championship Game.

VS. NEW HAMPSHIRE IN HOCKEY EAST TOURNAMENT
UMass Lowell and New Hampshire have met in 9 previous Hockey East Tournaments, with the River Hawks advancing 6 times. When UMass Lowell is the higher seed, they have advanced 5 times in 5 tries. Overall, UMass Lowell is 8-7 in tournament games against the Wildcats.

IN THE POLLS
UMass Lowell ranks #19 in the USCHO Poll and #19 in the USA Hockey Poll this week. They also rank #17 in the Pairwise Rankings going to into this matchup with New Hampshire.

AT THE DOT
UMass Lowell currently ranks 45th in the nation at the faceoff dot going into this weekend's slate. The River Hawks have won 982 of their 1,905 faceoffs taken for a .483 faceoff win percentage through their first 34 games.

THREE IS THE MAGIC NUMBER
When UMass Lowell scores 3 goals or more, they are 11-3-3 this season, and 224-43-17 since Norm Bazin took over. When they score 2 goals or less, they are just 4-11-0 this season, and 53-140-29 under Bazin.

On the flip side, when UMass Lowell allows 3 goals or more, they are 3-12-3 this season and 47-149-17 under Bazin, When they allow 2 goals or less they are now 12-2-0 this season, and 230-34-29 under Bazin.

CAREER BESTS
Dillan Bentley has 9 goals this season, easily eclipsing his career best of 4 from last year. His 15 points is also a career-best, besting the 12 he had last season.

Matt Crasa has 9 assists, tied with the career-best 9 he had as a freshman.

Pierson Brandon has 6 goals this season, tying the career-best 6 he had as a sophomore at Colgate.

T.J. Schweighardt has 9 points this season (all assists). He only had 6 points (2 goals 4 assists) in his freshman and sophomore years combined.

Scout Truman's 9 goals this season is a new career-best, edging past the 8 that he had as a freshman. His 37 PIM is by far a career-high, beating the 18 he had as a sophomore.

Owen Coles 12 assists is a new career-best, beating the 8 that he had as a sophomore. His 20 points is also a career-best, topping the 17 he had as a junior.

Ben Meehan's 13 assists tie his career high of 13 from his junior year.

Jak Vaarwerk has 5 goals, matching the 5 goals he had as a freshman. His 11 assists give him a new career-best, edging out the 10 he had as a freshman.

Henry Welsch already has 10 wins, beating the career-best 6 he had as a freshman and again as a junior.

Beni Halasz has 3 shutouts, matching the career-best 3 he had as a freshman with Northern Michigan.

IRON MEN
There are still 7 players on the roster who have appeared in every game this season: Ben Meehan, Jack Robilotti, Owen Cole, Scout Truman, T.J. Schweighardt, Connor Eddy, and Jak Vaarwerk. Last season, only 3 players did so - Owen Cole, Isac Jonsson, and Jak Vaarwerk. Owen Cole is the team's current Iron Man, having appeared in 83 consecutive games, last missing a game at Maine on January 14, 2023. Jak Vaarwerk has not missed a game in his 2 years at Lowell, appearing in 69 so far. Michael Kapla holds the record for consecutive games player for Lowell, not missing a single one of the 161 that Lowell played during his 4 years in Lowell.

A WIN ON WEDNESDAY…
A win today would move the River Hawks to a 16-15-4 overall record on the season and a 51-72-18 record all-time against the Wildcats, advancing to the Hockey East Quarterfinal Round on Saturday, March 15. Head Coach Norm Bazin would also move to 21-18-3 against New Hampshire.

No. 7 River Hawks Hosting No. 10 New Hampshire for Hockey East Opening Round

Players Mentioned

Dillan Bentley

Pierson Brandon

Mirko Buttazzoni

Owen Cole

Matt Crasa

Chris Delaney

Connor Eddy

Beni Halasz

Isac Jonsson

Ben Meehan

Lee Parks

Jack Robilotti

Scout Truman

Jak Vaarwerk

Henry Welsch

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