Friday at #20 Boston University: Live Stats | Watch | Listen
Saturday vs. #20 Boston University: Live Stats | Watch | Listen
LOWELL, Mass. – After splitting last weekend's home-and-home series with No. 10/11 UConn, the UMass Lowell ice hockey team (8-13-0, 4-7-0 Hockey East) continues Hockey East play with a home-and-home series with No. 20 Boston University (11-9-1, 7-6-0 Hockey East). The River Hawks will travel to Agganis Arena in Boston for game one on Friday, January 16 at 7:00 p.m., before hosting the Terriers for game two the next night at 6:05 p.m.
SCOUTING THE RIVER HAWKS
UMass Lowell entered the 2025-26 season coming off an 16-16-4 campaign that saw the River Hawks enter the Hockey East Tournament as the #7 seed. The team has graduated a handful of players and have bolstered their lineup of 14 returners with 15 newcomers, including three transfers and 12 freshmen. Of those transfers, one is graduate student, one is a senior and one is a sophomore. The team kicked off the 2025-26 season tied for the seventh spot in the Hockey East Preseason Poll with 53 points. At the moment, they are not recieving votes in the USCHO or USA Hockey Polls. They ended last season at No. 19 in the Pairwise rankings.
UMass Lowell enters this weekend after splitting their home-and-home series with #10/11 UConn last week. They won game one on the road, 5-3, before falling 5-1 at home the next night.
Jay Ahearn shined during the weekend, scoring twice in Fridayís win, while
Luke Shipley scored his first two career goals - one in each game.
At the moment, Bentley leads the squad with 17 points (10g, 7a).
Dalyn Wakely (5g, 8a) and
Jay Ahearn (9g, 4a) are right behind him with 13 points each.
Samuel Richard leads the goaltenders with a 2.52 GAA and .910 save percentage in nine appearances, while Austin Elliots boasts a 2.79 GAA with an .896 save percentage.
SCOUTING THE TERRIERS
The Terriers enter the weekend with an 11-9-1 overall record, most recently defeating Harvard, 4-1, in a standalone game on Monday, January 12.
BU is coming off a 2024-25 season year where they finished 24-14-2 (14-8-2 HEA). They fell to UConn in the Hockey East Semifinals, before advancing to the National Championship Game, where they fell, 6-2, to Western Michigan. They return two of their top five point-scorers from 2024-25 in Cole Hutson and Cole Eiserman. Hutson finished second with 48 points (14g, 34a), while Eiserman was fourth with 36 (25g, 11a). For goaltenders, they return Mikhail Yegorov, who finished last season with an 11-6-1 record, 2.15 GAA and .927 save percentage in 18 appearances. They also return Max Lacroix, who appeared in six games with a 1-2-0 record, 3.59 GAA and .872 save percentage.
This season, Cole Hutson leads the team with 21 points (7g, 14a), while Owen McLaughlin (4g, 10a) sits tied for second with Sacha Boisvert (3g, 11a) with 14 points each. Yegorov has started in net in all 21 games for the Terriers with an 11-8-1 record, 2.85 GAA and .901 save percentage.
UMASS LOWELL VS. BOSTON UNIVERSITY
The River Hawks have seen a lot of BU throughout program history, registering a 37-82-12 (.328) all-time mark against the Terriers. The two teams last played on November 9, 2024 and thr Terriers picked up a 5-2 win at the Tsongas Center.
FILLING THE TSONGAS
After 7 regular season home games, UMass Lowell is averaging 5662 per game, 94.3% of capacity, with 3 sellouts already. They currently rank 22nd in the NCAA in total attendance and 9th in average attendance, 2nd in Hockey East to Boston College. The 94.3% of capacity currently ranks 13th in the NCAA.
Last season, over 18 home games the average attendance at Tsongas was 5138, ranking UMass Lowell 13th in the nation. This was the 5th best number in the 27 full seasons that Tsongas has been open. There were 6 official sellouts last season, tied with 2012-13, 2014-15, and 2015-16 for the 2nd most in a single season. Only 2016-17, with 7, had more. (Capacity for Tsongas is 6003).
Overall, UMass Lowell is 27-20-8 when Tsongas is sold out.
AGAINST RANKED TEAMS
UMass Lowell is now 88-106-19 against ranked teams under Norm Bazin, 40-43-13 at home, 30-52-5 on the road, and 17-11-1 at neutral sites.
UMass Lowell has won their last 2 games against ranked teams on the road. The last time UMass Lowell won 3 straight games against ranked teams away from Tsongas was between February 19, 2021 and March 17, 2021.
THREE IS THE MAGIC NUMBER
When UMass Lowell scores 3 goals or more, they are 8-1-0 this season, and 233-44-17 since Norm Bazin took over. When they score 2 goals or less, they are 0-12-0 this season, and 53-154-30 under Norm.
On the flip side, when UMass Lowell allows 3 goals or more they are 2-9-0 this season and 49-160-17 under Norm, When they allow 2 goals or less they are 6-4-0 this season, and 237-38-30 under Norm.
CAREER BESTS
Dillan Bentley has 10 goals this season. His career best was 9, set last season. His 4 power play goals is a career best, topping the 3 he had as a sophomore. His 17 points bests his career high of 16 from last season.
Mirko Buttazoni's 4 goals is just 1 shy of the 5 he scored last season as a freshman. Libor Nemec has 7 assists this season, topping the 6 he had last season as a freshman.
T.J. Schweighardt has 2 goals this season. He had 2 over his 1st 3 years combined. His 8 assists is just 2 behind his career high of 10 that he had last season as a junior.
Jak Vaarwerk has 4 goals thus far. He had 5 in each of his freshman and sophomore seasons. He has 2 power play goals this season after only scoring once on the man-advantage in his first 2 seasons.
Sean Kilcullen has 1 goal and 3 assists this season. He had 0 goals and 2 assists in his first 2 seasons combined.
AT THE DOT
UMass Lowell currently ranks 34th in the nation at the faceoff dot going into this weekend's slate. The River Hawks have won 626 of their 1,265 faceoffs taken for a .495 faceoff win percentage through their first 21 games.
IN THE POLLS
At the moment, the River Hawks are not receiving votes in the USCHO or USA Hockey Polls. They ended last season at No. 19 in the Pairwise rankings.
A WIN TODAY..
A win today would move the River Hawks to an 9-13-0 record on the season and a 37-82-12 record all-time against the Terriers. Head Coach Norm Bazin would also move to 20-15-4 against BU.
UP NEXT
Next, the River Hawks will move on to play Maine in another conference series on Friday and Saturday, January 23 and 24 at home. Game one will kick off at 7:15 p.m., while Saturday's game two is set for 6:05 p.m. For tickets, click here.
