Jan. 29, 2010

For the first six weeks of this season, UMass-Lowell was rolling along. The River Hawks had a record of 8-2-1, and the losses were by a single goal. They stumbled a bit after that, dropping three in a row, but followed with victories at home over UMass and Princeton.

Then UMass-Lowell hit another rough patch, going 2-4-1 from Dec. 12-Jan. 16. In their last two contests, however, the River Hawks rebounded strongly with home victories over Merrimack and Boston College. Tonight, they get another shot at Northeastern, which beat them in the Ledyard Bank Classic championship game at Dartmouth Jan. 3, six days before UMass-Lowell prevailed in overtime at Matthews Arena.

The 16th-ranked River Hawks have two very able goaltenders in seniors Carter Hutton and Nevin Hamilton, and coach Blaise MacDonald said he feels equal confidence. "Both of them have played very well,'' he said. "It has been very dependable and consistent.''

Despite his team's position in the standings - in fourth place in Hockey East but just 2 points out of second - MacDonald feels there are plenty of areas that could use improvement.

"Our team play has really been better and more consistent,'' said MacDonald. "Early on in the year, we were winning some games where we'd score maybe three power-play goals but not really play a consistent team game that we wanted to. Now it's kind of the opposite. We're playing a very good, structured, systematic game and our power play has been a little spotty. We've been getting very good goaltending.''

In addition to the strength in their zone, the River Hawks have balanced scoring; 10 players have 12 or more points through 25 contests. Senior forward Kory Falite leads the team with 24 points. Junior forward Scott Campbell, sophomore forward David Vallorani, and senior defenseman Nick Schaus are tied for second with 21 points.

New Hampshire is in first place with 25 points, but only 7 points separate the second-place teams (BC and UMass, 20 points) from the eighth-place team (Northeastern).

"It's been tough to get on a roll for a lot of teams,'' said MacDonald. "Early on, there was nobody sweeping a weekend. I just think if you get two wins in a weekend in this league, you've played really well. UNH has struggled out of league but has been phenomenal in the league. It has been a strange year in that regard. It has been a bit of an unpredictable year where some of your top teams, on any given night, can look like NCAA champs and on other nights, not as good.''

With the high-profile programs, such as Boston University and BC, usually getting the attention, the River Hawks fly under the radar - and that's just fine with them.

"For our program, we're really well-defined and we're very comfortable with who we are and we're very proud,'' said MacDonald. "We really don't compare ourselves to Beanpot schools. Lowell is all we know and all we care about.

"Last weekend, we played Merrimack and BC at home, and with no students around [because of their extended break], we had just under 11,000 people at Tsongas Arena. To me, that's pretty spectacular in terms of [how far] our program has come and where it's going.''

Read the complete story here.