Friday vs. New Hampshire: Live Stats | NESN+ & Watch (ESPN+)
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Saturday at New Hampshire: Live Stats | NESN+ & Watch (ESPN+) | Listen
LOWELL, Mass. – The No. 17 UMass Lowell ice hockey team (15-13-4, 8-11-3 Hockey East) will continue the playoff push this weekend, as they close out the regular season with a home-and-home series with New Hampshire on Friday and Saturday. Game one is set for 7:05 p.m. at the Tsongas Center, before the River Hawks travel to New Hampshire on Saturday 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. Through 32 games this season, they hold a 15-13-4 record (8-11-3 Hockey East). Nationally, they rank #17 in the USCHO Poll and #17 in the USA Hockey Poll. In the Pairwise Rankings, they sit at #15.
UMass Lowell enters this weekend after an 0-1-1 weekend against Massachusetts last weekend. They tied, 2-2, in game one, falling in a shootout, before dropping a 5-3 contest in game two.
Owen Cole led the squad with two points on the weekend (1g, 1a), scoring in game two after picking up a helper in Friday's game one.
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 2.42 GAA and has a .901 save percentage, while
Beni Halasz is also posting a productive season with a 2.54 GAA and .910 save percentage.
SCOUTING THE WILDCATS
The Wildcats enter the weekend with an 11-15-6 overall record (3-14-5 Hockey East), most recently going 0-1-1 with a shootout loss last weekend against Boston College.
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 28 points (15g, 13a), while Robert Cronin (13g, 11a) and LeClerc (7g, 17a) sit tied for second with 24. Devlin (7g, 14a) is just behind them with 21 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 49-70-18 (.423) all-time mark against the Wildcats. The two teams last played on March 13, 2024 when the Wildcats picked up a 1-0 win in the Hockey East Opening Round.
SCORING AGAINST THE WILDCATS
16 players have played at least one game against New Hampshire in their careers.
Ben Meehan leads the way with 11 games played, while
Isac Jonsson leads in points against the Wildcats, tallying five (2g, 3a) in nine games played.
Matt Crasa and
Ben Meehan each have two assists for two points against New Hampshire.
IN THE POLLS
UMass Lowell ranks #17 in the USCHO Poll and #17 in the USA Hockey Poll this week. They also rank #15 in the Pairwise Rankings going to into this set with New Hampshire.
AT THE DOT
UMass Lowell currently ranks 42nd in the nation at the faceoff dot going into this weekend's slate. The River Hawks have won 923 of their 1,905 faceoffs taken for a .485 faceoff win percentage through their first 32 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 4-10-0 this season, and 53-139-29 under Norm.
On the flip side, when UMass Lowell allows 3 goals or more they are 3-11-3 this season and 47-148-17 under Norm, When they allow 2 goals or less they are now 12-2-0 this season, and 230-34-29 under Norm.
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 8 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 35 PIM is by far a career-high, beating the 18 he had as a sophomore.
Owen Cole's 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 12 assists is 1 shy of his career-best 13 as a junior.
Jak Vaarwerk has 5 goals matches the 5 goals he had as a freshman. His 11 assists is 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 8 players on the roster who have appeared in every game this season:
Ben Meehan,
Nick Anderson,
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 81 consecutive games, last missing a game at Maine on January 14, 2023.
Jak Vaarwerk has not missed a game in his 2 years at UMass Lowell, appearing in 67 so far. Michael Kapla holds the record for consecutive games player for UMass Lowell, not missing a single one of the 161 that Lowell played during his 4 years in UMass Lowell.
A WIN ON FRIDAY…
A win today would move the River Hawks to a 16-13-4 record on the season and a 50-70-18 record all-time against the Wildcats. Head Coach
Norm Bazin would also move to 20-16-3 against New Hampshire.
UP NEXT
Following this series, the River Hawks will await the Hockey East Playoff seedings and will shift their focus to the postseason.
