#11 Lowell River Hawks 14-7-0 (9-6-0) Hockey East 5th

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Massachusetts Minutemen 9-8-5 (5-6-4) Hockey East 7th

Honestly I’m not really sure what to expect in this weekend’s home and home with Lowell, but I will make one prediction;  there’s absolutely no way the Minutemen can possibly play any worse than they did when these teams met in November.  That game saw UMass get shutout 4-0, but honestly it wasn’t even that close.  Lowell dominated what looked to be a completely disinterested UMass team and held them to a meager 16 shots total, including only two in the entire first period.  Only Mike Pereira (4), Eric Filiou (2), and Branden Gracel (2) had multiple shots on net, the rest of the team was held to a single shot or none at all.  Conor Sheary did not register any shots on goal.  The River Hawks went 2 for 5 on the power play while the Minutemen didn’t capitalize on any of their 5 chances, registering only 4 shots on net.  Only Steve Mastalerz could be said to have a good game, making 30 saves despite the lackluster effort in front of him.

What added to the disappointment of that game was that UMass actually had a little momentum going.  They were unbeaten in the four games leading up to the Lowell matchup, going 3-0-1 in a stretch that started with the upset of #1 Boston College.  Then with that loss to Lowell they dropped three in a row and didn’t win again until they played Yale on the eve of the Christmas break.  As we know the team is on another good stretch again, going 5-1-2 in their last eight.  It would be sad to see the team’s recent rise flop with another dismal performance to Lowell.  That fact is not lost on the players however as when asked about the recent success last week, Conor Allen specifically mentioned how they let momentum get away the last time they had a good stretch going.

That game also started a streak for Lowell as they would win the next four after beating Massachusetts and have gone 8-3-0 overall since.  One of those losses came this past Tuesday to Providence where the Friars were able to pull off the upset by the 1-0 score.  It was a rare shutout of a potent River Hawk offense that is currently third in the league with 3.38 goals per game.  They’re being led by the current favorite for Hockey East Rookie of the Year, Scott Wilson, who has 11 goals and 20 points total on the year.  He’s first on the team in goals despite only being 9th in shots, scoring 29% of the time he puts it on net.  Helping carry the offensive load is sophomore star Derek Arnold with 10 goals, half of which have come on the power play.  Defensively UMass will have to worry about Doug Carr who is the only Hockey East starting goaltender with a sub-2.00 goals against average at 1.80.  Of course he has already shut out the Minutemen once this year.  Not like they don’t already have a tough time as it is, but UMass will have to overcome the 2nd best penalty kill in the league if they want to take advantage of power play opportunities.

My advice for the Minutemen is skate, skate, skate.  Skate because last time they played the River Hawks they did very little skating at all.  At least none that seemed that productive.  UMass has been able to score 8 goals in their last two games by skating.  Both of the last two games saw a number of odd man rushes that UMass took advantage of.  And in the Vermont game activity in front of the net helped push through another couple goals.  Another reason for UMass to keep skating all weekend is that they’re well rested.  The Minutemen played just one game this past weekend with Friday’s tilt against Vermont.  Lowell on the other hand will have to play five games in eight days as they faced Northeastern in a home and home last weekend, travelled to Providence on Tuesday, and will roll into Amherst tomorrow before heading back to the Tsongas on Saturday.  If there is one clear advantage for UMass this weekend it’s that they have fresh legs.

It’ll be important for the Minutemen to take advantage of whatever small edge they can find against this young but talented River Hawk squad since there is a lot riding on the games this weekend.  UMass is just four points behind 5th place Lowell in the standings and of course there will be that exact amount of points up for grabs.  Also on the line is the season series and the tiebreaker that goes with it.  And last but not least let’s not forget that the Alumni Cup is at stake.  Maybe this year someone will finally think to actually present the thing on the ice following Saturday’s game.

Beer The Triangle

Of course a trip to Lowell means a trip to Lowell Beer Works.  January is Belgian month there and, if memory serves, I’m especially fond of the Double Vision, a red dubbel, and Houblon Rouge, their Belgian IPA.

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Dick Baker previews the weekend by focusing on Adam Phillips’ improved play as of late.

The Collegian points out that the team is winning despite taking a ton of penalties.

College Hockey News takes a look at the weekend in Hockey East.

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Paul Dainton performed well in his return to the Falcons, making 37 saves and picking up the win.  One of the two goals he gave up in the 4-2 game was to former teammate Matt Irwin.  Dainton has a nice shoutout to UMass goaltending coach Mike Buckley in the recap.

Jon Quick is named to The United States of Hockey’s Mid-Season All-America Team.  Quick will be playing on Team Alfredsson with a bunch of other Senators in this weekend’s All-Star Game.

Lastly, led by Minnesota native Anthony Raiola, the UMass team has been showing their support for the injured high school hockey player Jack Jablonski by writing his name on their equipment.

Yet, it doesn’t appear too many people know that basketball is back in Amherst.  Their games have been attended by an average of only 3134 a game so far.  Compare that to hockey’s average attendance of 4473.  Certainly I’m not complaining about that number or trying to discourage people from hockey, but it’s disappointing that the team that inhabits the Mullins that is closer to an NCAA bid is drawing so much less.  Not only that, but it’s hardly drawing any type of student crowd to speak of.  Needless to say, that’s exactly the opposite from when I was a student in the mid-90s when my buddies and I would wait hours in the snow on Thursday mornings for hoops tickets but would be able to breeze into the Mullins right at faceoff and have Section W all to ourselves.  Obviously a lot has changed in those years.  Hoops peaked with those amazing NCAA runs, was nearly destroyed by Steve Lappas, and then took a hit when Travis Ford left for LSU Providence Kentucky Oklahoma $tate.  Hockey in the meantime wallowed for a while longer in the Mallen Era, had some success within the conference when Coach Cahoon was hired, and made it’s first NCAA tournament 5 years ago before crashing back to the bottom of Hockey East in recent years.  Along the way students stopped going to basketball and became hockey fans, with a bunch of them even learning a thing or two about the sport.  More amazing still, the students still flock to watch hockey even as the team has struggled to win games this the past few seasons.  But students, why limit yourself to being maniacs in the Mullins once or maybe twice a week?  As someone who rushed the court when the Minutemen beat Temple for the A10 trophy, had no less than 15 items of clothing with “Refuse To Lose” on it, and maybe even once drunkenly dabbled in some pregame face painting, basketball games can memorable to say the least.  There’s no reason why students can’t carry over the energy they bring to hockey to support Derek Kellogg’s squad while having a good time doing it.

And what a squad Kellogg has assembled.  It took a few years for the former Minuteman point guard to get the right players and the right staff onto campus, but he has built a team that is doing damage in the A10 and beyond for this year and future years.  New point guard Chaz Williams is one of the best and most exciting point guards I’ve seen in sometime and Raphiael Putney is only getting the team onto the Sportscenter Top 10 thanks to plays like this one.  I’m really envious of those who are able to regularly attend games.  I reluctantly gave up my basketball season tickets when I moved from the valley to the Boston area a few years back, unable to juggle the trips to Amherst for hockey, football, and hoops (and even an occasional lacrosse game).  But luckily I have been able to catch a game here and there.  This year’s team is one I really wish I could see on a more regular basis.  So for those of you who are just a short drive or even walk away from seeing the resurgence of Minuteman basketball, do yourself a favor and head over to the Mullins this Saturday afternoon as the team takes on 4th place St Louis and see for yourself just how great this team is.

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Providence beat Lowell last night in a rare Tuesday Hockey East game.  That puts #6 Providence ahead of the Minutemen by three points while the River Hawks remain four points ahead and will likely be very perturbed when they face the flagship campus for two this weekend.

Here’s a piece from the Junior Hockey News regarding a Red Wing scout who has been following Adam Phillips since juniors.

UMass moved up to #6 in CHN’s Hockey East Power Rankings.

Minnesota State Moorhead is getting closer to Division I hockey.

Kenny Gillespie – RW – Omaha Lancers (USHL) – 2012
17 GP / 2 G / 3 A / 5 Pts / 29 PIM / 0
Gillespie played in both Lancer games over the weekend, which is good since he’s been injured in the past couple months.  While he didn’t pick up any points, he did have 6 PIM in a game that featured 39 total penalties.

Willy Smith – LW – Springfield Pics (EJHL/EmpJHL) – 2014
EJHL: 17 GP / 1 G / 1 A / 2 Pts / 28 PIM
Empire: 19 GP / 6 G / 18 A / 24 Pts / 20 PIM
Smith played for the EJHL club but did not pick up any points.  He did get kicked out of the second game after picking up an instigator and a game disqualification.

Shane Walsh – LW – South Shore Kings (EJHL) – 2012
Dubuque (USHL):  23 GP / 5 G / 7 A / 12 Pts / 0 PIM / –8
South Shore (EJHL): 2 GP / 1 G / 1 A / 2 Pts / 0 PIM
Walsh had a power play goal in his first game back in the EJHL.

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A couple of All-Star related stories on Jon Quick.  The first is a feature from the Kings’ website on Quick’s selection to the team.  The second is from Pro Hockey Talk and has his thoughts on the fantasy draft process and where he thinks he may go.

Paul Dainton has returned to the valley, via Chicago, and Florida, and Reading Pennsylvania.  He tweeted something last night about the airline suggesting he should cut his sticks in half to avoid fees but hopefully he found a way around that as he’ll likely be in net against Worcester and Matt Irwin tomorrow night.

UMass moved down a spot from last week at this time in the most recent Pairwise ranking, sitting at #24.  Success this weekend against the River Hawks would help that as they currently sit at #3.

The Minutemen find themselves in 7th place in Hockey East, same as last week.  That’s actually a good thing since all the teams around them had two games while UMass and Vermont played just the single match on Friday.  Maine’s four point weekend however means home ice is now 6 points away.  Lowell is four points ahead of UMass in 5th place, however that could change as they take on Providence tomorrow night.  The Friars currently sit just ahead of UMass by one point while UNH is just behind in 8th place by a single point.  UMass has a four point lead on Northeastern who sits in 9th place, out of the playoffs.

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Conor Allen, Danny Hobbs, Steve Mastalerz, and Mike Pereira were all named Hockey East Top Performers for their efforts against Vermont this past weekend.

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The Daily Collegian has a couple of catch-up articles after returning from break.  The first covers the Florida trip, Frozen Fenway, and the upset of BC while the second is a story on the goaltending situation.

Here’s an interesting article out of Alaska regarding the future of the WCHA that suggests Iowa State, Wisconsin-Green Bay and Minnesota-Moorhead may be looking to upgrade their hockey programs.

So while penalties were a factor the team was able to overcome, a lot of that had to do with the play once again of their seniors, led by Danny Hobbs’ hat trick.  It was a very disappointing first half of the season for Hobbs, but it’s becoming more and more apparent that the nagging groin injury he was battling really affected his play.  In the games leading up to winter break Hobbs had four goals and three assists and missed three games entirely with the injury.  In the six games since he had the Christmas break to heal up he has five goals and four assists.  Without a 100% healthy Hobbs in the lineup UMass is unable to get that strong in front of the net presence that he brings.  That was the difference last night.  Fellow seniors Mike Marcou and T.J. Syner both chipped in with an assist each and finished the game with a +2.

Conor Allen got his second game-winning goal in the last two games after a heads up play where he jumped on a puck that Catamount goaltender Rob Madore was unable to control.  That brings Allen’s goal total on the year to six, very good considering even in the USHL he only scored 7 in his 48 games.  After writing about his lack of production mid-week, I thought Mike Pereira had one of his best games in some time.  He had a couple of assists, the first which setup Hobbs’ first goal and came on a spectacular pass from behind the net.   He also had a few other really nice setups that his teammates were just unable to finish on.  In addition he made some key defensive plays including a textbook backcheck where he took the puck right away from a Catamount who was rushing into the UMass zone.  Steve Guzzo had a great game with an assist and winning 11 of 15 faceoffs.  Steve Mastalerz got the start again and while he wasn’t quite as sharp as last weekend against BC he had a solid 35 save effort.  He came up big especially in the second period when, thanks to three power plays, UVM poured 14 shots on net.

Well, they weren’t the prettiest of games and the team is probably still kicking themselves for not getting the win up in Burlington, but it’s good to see UMass take a season series from a Hockey East opponent for the second consecutive weekend.  All three games between the two teams were decided by a single goal.  If there was ever a time to start scoreboard watching on the season, today would probably be it.  Originally UMass and Vermont were to play today but that game got moved to Fenway.  As a result all the other Hockey East teams are in action today while the Minutemen sit idle in Amherst.  With UNH knocking off a suddenly mediocre Merrimack team it means they stay a point behind UMass in the standings in 8th place.  The Wildcats can move ahead if they beat the Warriors in Durham tonight.  Lowell’s win over Northeastern keeps them two points ahead of the Minutemen.  Those teams will face each again tonight.  Lowell has a pretty busy eight days.  After the home and home with Northeastern they’ll face Providence on Tuesday before travelling to Amherst on Friday and then back to Lowell for the series finale on Saturday.  For UMass they’ll have all week to prepare for the surprise Hockey East team of the season.  This will be the first chance to gain a tiebreaker that could potentially come into play at the end of the season.  But to do so UMass will have sweep both games from the satellite campus.  Not an easy proposition since the River Hawks haven’t lost consecutive games since October.

Fear The Triangle Player of the Game
Quite obviously this goes to Danny Hobbs who notched his first career hat trick.

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Coach Cahoon says the team is making good progress on the season in the Gazette recap.

Here’s the game story from the Republican.

UVM Coach Kevin Sneddon blames his team’s lack of toughness in front the net for the loss in the Burlington Free Press recap.

CHN’s Michael King’s takeaways from the game.

Vermont Catamounts 5-16-1 (2-12-1) Hockey East – 10th

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Massachusetts Minutemen 8-8-5 (4-6-4) Hockey East – 7th

While this game will lack the buzz and pageantry of when these teams last met two weeks ago at Fenway Park, that doesn’t mean the game itself is any less important.  Mike Marcou’s overtime goal in that game gave UMass the win, but due to a lackluster up in Burlington during Thanksgiving Week the season series is tied  at one game apiece and tomorrow night will be the decider.  It’s unlikely that a tiebreaker will come into play with the Catamounts but it would be good to take another season series after picking up one last weekend and as always the two points on the line are huge in terms of keeping pace with the rest of Hockey East.  Especially considering all other teams in the league play two games this weekend while the Minutemen and their UVM foes only play one.

Two games have been played between these teams with each winning by the narrowest of margins.  The Cats won in November 2-1 while UMass took the Fenway game 3-2 in extra innings.  An easy way for UMass to give themselves an advantage in tomorrow’s game is to stay out of the penalty box.  Three of Vermont’s four goals against the Minutemen this season have come on the power play.  In fact, in the roughly 125 minutes of play between these teams UMass has racked up 41 minutes in penalties.  That’s not good.  Vermont is the worst scoring offense in Hockey East by a long shot, averaging just 2.35 goals per game.  But their power play is 8th in the league (better than UMass’) so there’s no need to be giving them an extra man advantage.

The big storyline for Vermont this season has been injuries, of which they have a ton.  They already have a number of players who are out for the season but the one that matters most right now is their star sophomore Connor Brickley who is out indefinitely with a leg injury suffered during the World Juniors.  Brickley is still 2nd on the team in goals despite missing 7 games so far for the Catamounts.  With him out UMass will have to key in on Sebastian Stalberg who has either scored or assisted on 23 of the teams 51 goals, including 3 against UMass.  Freshman Kyle Reynolds has been one of the few bright spots for UVM, scoring 8 goals on the season, 3 coming against the Minutemen.  Defenseman Drew McKenzie adds some offensive power from the blue line with 6 goals and 9 assists so far.  In net will likely be Rob Madore who has the worst statistics for a starting goaltender in Hockey East with a 3.67 goals against average and .873 save percentage.  It’s tough to tell how much of that is his play versus the team in front of him.  He’s been able to solve UMass so far though giving up just four goals to the Minutemen in over 120 minutes of work.

Who will be in net for the UMass?  Whoever had the best week in practice would be my guess.  Jeff Teglia has faced the Catamounts twice so far with pretty good success, giving up just two goals in each of the games.  Perhaps his familiarity with the team will lead him to get the start.  In looking at what has made UMass successful in this 4-1-1 stretch they’re on it’s that the seniors have really stepped up.  Altogether co-captains T.J. Syner and Danny Hobbs and assistant captain Mike Marcou have scored 9 of the 25 goals in that time.  But  in addition to bringing just their offensive game, they’ve gotten the job done defensively too.  Syner has been a +7 in those games, Hobbs a +8, and Marcou a +7.  UMass has been a very good scoring team all season, but it hasn’t been until they’ve really stepped up their defensive play that the scoring led to wins.  The seniors are leading the way on that front and hopefully the younger players are following in their footsteps.

Beer The Triangle
The Hangar was due to put a barrel of Green Flash Double Stout on tap earlier this week which I’m very interested in trying.  They also had a hard to find Founders that was to go on soon but I’ll be damned if I can remember which.  Double Trouble maybe?

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College Hockey News takes a look at the weekend ahead in Hockey East.  They also have an interesting piece on the rise of hitting from behind penalties in the game.

New England Hockey Journal takes a look at UMass’ success at home so far.

Massachusetts – 70
Ontario – 16
New York – 12
Connecticut – 10
Minnesota – 6
Alberta – 5
British Columbia – 5
Quebec – 5
Rhode Island – 5
Illinois – 4
Michigan – 4
California – 3
Finland – 3
New Jersey – 3
Pennsylvania – 3
Maine – 2
New Hampshire – 2
Saskatchewan – 2
Alaska – 1
Austria – 1
Belarus – 1
England – 1
Florida – 1
Latvia – 1
Manitoba – 1
Maryland – 1
Newfoundland – 1
Nova Scotia – 1
Sweden – 1
Utah – 1
Vermont – 1

There you have it.  Some interesting things to note.  40% of all the UMass players come from in-state.  21% of players have come from Canada.  Eight players have come from outside of North America, including Matt Smith who was born in England and played for the Minutemen in the late 90s.  UMass has had incredible success recruiting players from Finland as all three made a big impact on the program.  Markus Helanen is still seen as one of the top goaltenders in the program’s history, Toni Soderholm was a captain and great defenseman, and Sami Jalkanen was a solid defenseman for UMass for three seasons before leaving to play professionally back in Helsinki.  But UMass has had mixed success in the other countries, picking up All-American Thomas Pöck from Austria and current Minuteman Oleg Yevenko from Belarus but at the same time adding the very forgettable Dmitri Vasiliev from Latvia and Anders Lusth from Sweden.  North of the border UMass didn’t have any players from Quebec in the 90s but most who have played since then (Nick Kuiper, Martin Nolet, Mike Lecomte, Danny Hobbs, and Eric Filiou) have made significant contributions to the program.

It’s interesting to see that UMass has had as many players from Rhode Island as Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont combined.  Even more interesting is that three of them were named Shaw.   UMass hasn’t had a ton of players from non-traditional hockey states, only five combined coming from California, Florida, and Maryland, but those players have for the most part been very good.  Casey Wellman and Troy Power both come from California while Stephen Werner is the lone player from Maryland.  Kenny Gillespie who joins the team will add a new state to the list, North Carolina.

When looking at just Massachusetts, the team has gotten the most players from Framingham, five total, with the best being Will Ortiz.  Four Minutemen have hailed from Medford, including Chris Capraro.  UMass has done well recruiting in the valley, with four players really good players coming from Springfield in Tom O’Connor, Rob Bonneau, P.J. Fenton, and T.J. Syner.  Add to that total Kevin “Holyoke” Czepiel, goaltender Rich Moriarty from Wilbraham, Mike Waidlich from Miller Falls, and transfers John Luszcz and Dominic Torretti from Ludlow and Western Mass is pretty much covered.  Recruit Willy Smith will add to that local list in 2014

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Speaking of Paul Dainton, in the goaltender shuffling that occurs in the minors to try to get guys playing time it appears he’s been assigned to the Reading Royals of the ECHL.  Spending time between the pipes in Reading isn’t a bad thing however.  It worked out quite well for former Royal Jon Quick.

UMass is moving up in the College Hockey News Power Rankings.

Lastly, Doyle Somerby who has been offered by UMass and I wrote about last week, is reportedly close to making a decision according to USHR.  They report that he has also been offered by Maine, New Hampshire, St Lawrence and is due to visit Boston University tomorrow.