Friday vs. Northeastern: Live Stats | Watch (ESPN+) | Listen
Saturday vs. Northeastern: Live Stats | Watch (ESPN+) | Listen
LOWELL, Mass. – After a road conference sweep at Vermont last weekend, the UMass Lowell ice hockey team (12-18-0, 8-12-0 Hockey East) will now host a pair of games against Northeastern (13-15-1, 8-11-0 Hockey East) at the Tsongas Center on Friday, February 20 and Saturday, February 21. Friday's series opener is set for 7:15 p.m., while Saturday's matchup will have a 6:05 p.m. puck drop.
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 a sweep at Vermont last week, earning 4-2 and 5-2 victories. Chris Delaney tallied four points on four assists in the series, while Jay Ahearn, Diego Buttazzoni and Nate Misskey all had two-goal weekends.
At the moment, Bentley leads the squad with 22 points (13g, 9a), while Jak Vaarwerk (6g,12a) and Dalyn Wakely (6g, 12a) are tied in second with 18 each. Samuel Richard leads the goaltenders with a 2.79 GAA to go along with his .907 save percentage in 14 appearances, while Austin Elliott holds a 2.80 GAA with a .893 save percentage in 20 appearances.
SCOUTING THE HUSKIES
The Huskies enter the weekend with a 13-15-1 overall record and 8-11-0 conference record, most recently splitting last weekendís road series at Providence. They earned a 4-2 win in game one before falling 4-1 in Saturdayís game two.
Northeastern is coming off a 2024-25 season year where they finished 14-20-3 (7-14-3 Hockey East). They made a run in the Hockey East Tournament, reaching the Semifinal, but falling, 4-3, in 2OT to Maine. They return two of their top five point-scorers from 2024-25 in Dylan Hryckowian and Vinny Borgesi. Hryckowian finished third with 36 points (17g, 19a) and Borgesi finished in fourth with 22 (5g, 17a). For goaltenders, they return Quentin Sigurdson, who made six appearances with three starts for a 1-3-0 record in 2024-25, with a 2.13 GAA and .920 save percentage.
This season, Hryckowian leads the team with 33 points (15g, 18a), while Jacob Mathieu (9g, 17a) sits in second with 26 and Giacomo Martino (9g, 11a) is third with 20. Lawton Zacher has started in net in 25 games for the Huskies with an 11-13-1 record, 2.16 GAA and .930 save percentage, while Sigurdson has appeared in four games with four starts, with a 2-2-0 record, 2.72 GAA and .920 save percentage.
UMASS LOWELL VS. NORTHEASTERN
The River Hawks have seen a lot of Northeastern throughout program history, registering a 69-55-10 (.552) all-time mark against the Huskies. The two teams last played on February 15, 2025, when the River Hawks picked up a 3-1 win at home.
THREE IS THE MAGIC NUMBER
When Lowell scores 3 goals or more, they are now 12-3-0 this season, and 237-46-17 since
Norm Bazin took over. When they score 2 goals or less, they are 0-15-0 this season, and 53-157-30 under Norm.
On the flip side, when Lowell allows 3 goals or more they are 3-13-0 this season and 50-164-17 under Norm, When they allow 2 goals or less they are 9-5-0 this season, and 240-39-30 under Norm.
CAREER BESTS
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Dillan Bentley has 13 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 22 points bests his career high of 16 from last season.
-Mirko Buttazoniís 4 goals is just 1 shy of the 5 he scored last season as a freshman.
-Libor Nemec has 10 assists this season, topping the 6 he had last season as a freshman. His 13 points bests the 12 he had last season.
-T.J. Schweighardt has 3 goals this season. He had 2 over his 1st 3 years combined. His 11 assists eclipses his career high of 10 that he had last season as a junior. His 14 points is a career high, topping the 10 he had last season.
-Jak Vaarwerk has 6 goals thus far, topping the 5 he had in each of his freshman and sophomore seasons. He has 3 power play goals this season after only scoring once on the man-advantage in his first 2 seasons. His 18 points exceeds to career high of 16 he had last season. His 12 assists beats the career high of 11 he set last season.
-Sean Kilcullen has 3 goals and 4 assists this season. He had 0 goals and 2 assists in his first 2 seasons combined.
-Chris Delaneyís 11 assists tops the 9 he had as a freshman last season.
-Lee Parks now has 7 assists, edging past the 6 he had as a freshman last season.
AT THE DOT
UMass Lowell currently ranks 39th in the nation at the faceoff dot going into this weekend's slate. The River Hawks have won 917 of their 1,795 faceoffs taken for a .490 faceoff win percentage through their first 30 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 13-18-0 record on the season and a 70-55-10 record all-time against the Huskies. Head Coach
Norm Bazin would also move to 17-16-3 against Northeastern.
UP NEXT
Next up, the River Hawks will conclude the regular season with a Thursday matchup at Merrimack on March 5 at 7:00 p.m., before hosting Boston University in the regular season finale on Saturday, March 7 at 6:05 p.m.
