The 2023–24 UMass Lowell River Hawks Men's ice hockey season was the 57th season of play for the program, the 41st competing at the Division I level and 40th in Hockey East. The River Hawks represented the University of Massachusetts Lowell in the 2023–24 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey season, played their home games at Tsongas Center and were coached by Norm Bazin in his 13th season.
Season Entering the year, Lowell was having to replace several of its key players; The top three scorers from last year were all gone, which was not ideal for a team that already had a hard time scoring. However, more critically, the River Hawks needed to find a way to replace its starting goaltender. Henry Welsch had shared the crease in '23 and was expected to compete for the job with Massachusetts transfer Luke Pavicich. At the start, the goaltending rotation looked like it was working when Lowell won 4 of its first 6 games while allowing less than 2 goals per. The tandem continued to play well in November, however, that when the lack of offense began to cost the team. The Hawks faced a gauntlet of highly-ranked opponents and lost four consecutive games, three by just a single goal. The losses dropped the squad to the bottom of the conference but there was still plenty of time to recover.
Unfortunately, from Thanksgiving on, the offense never could get on track. Over the final 24 games, Lowell managed 3 goals in just eight of their games and 4 goals in only two. They were shutout four separate times in that span and ended the regular season with just 39 goals in Hockey East play, by far the lowest mark in the conference. To make matters worse, Pavicich struggled in the second half of the season and his numbers ballooned. While Lowell's average goals against wasn't much much worse than their contemporaries, their nearly invisible offense left the team with no margin for error. The River Hawks finished last in the conference and ended with just 8 wins on the year, by far the worse season under Bazin.
In the conference tournament, the team continued the same trend and were unable to score a single goal. Even with Welsh holding New Hampshire to 1 goal, the team suffered its third consecutive blanking and quietly ended a forgettable year.
Departures Nik Armstrong-Kingcade Forward Graduation (retired) Carl Berglund Forward Graduation (signed with Edmonton Oilers) Ryan Brushett Forward Graduation (retired) Brian Chambers Forward Graduate transfer to Arizona State Gustavs Dāvis Grigals Goaltender Graduation (signed with Milwaukee Admirals) Zach Kaiser Forward Graduation (signed with Trois-Rivières Lions) Marek Korenčík Defenseman Graduation (signed with Iowa Heartlanders) Jon McDonald Defenseman Graduation (signed with Toledo Walleye) Blake Wells Forward Graduate transfer to American International
Recruiting Ben Brunette Defenseman 21 North Bay, ON Adam Cardona Defenseman 19 Beaconsfield, QC Nick Granowicz Forward 25 Macomb, MI; graduate transfer from Michigan Jonathan Horn Forward 21 Southbury, CT Sean Kilcullen Defenseman 21 Kensington, MD Jaiden Moriello Forward 20 Saugus, MA Shawn O'Donnell Forward 20 Pittsburgh, PA Luke Pavicich Goaltender 21 Clarence Center, NY; transfer from Massachusetts Alex Peterson Forward 21 Lansdale, PA; graduate transfer from Holy Cross Ģirts Silkalns Forward 20 Talsi, LAT Jak Vaarwerk Forward 20 East Amherst, NY
Roster As of September 21, 2023.
Standings
Schedule and results
!colspan=12 style=";" | Regular Season
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Scoring statistics LW 35 7 14 21 18 C 36 10 7 17 8 C 36 5 10 15 28 C/LW 34 9 4 13 32 C/RW 34 8 5 13 16 F 32 4 8 12 12 D 36 3 9 12 2 D 25 1 11 12 31 C/RW 35 5 4 9 6 LW 29 3 6 9 12 F 25 4 4 8 10 D 30 3 3 6 12 RW 16 0 5 5 6 F 20 3 2 5 4 D 23 1 3 4 6 F 30 1 3 4 16 D 33 1 3 4 8 D 34 0 4 4 39 F 34 1 1 2 2 F 18 0 2 2 6 D 27 0 2 2 25 F 2 1 0 1 0 D 13 1 0 1 4 D 15 1 0 1 8 F 5 0 1 1 6 F 10 0 1 1 6 D 12 0 1 1 19 G 17 0 1 1 0 G 2 0 0 0 0 G 22 0 0 0 0 Total 72 114 186 352
Goaltending statistics 25 1250:43 5 13 4 51 499 1 .907 2.45 17 914:58 3 11 0 55 423 0 .885 3.61 5 14:03 0 0 0 3 7 0 .700 12.81 Empty Net - 24:28 - - - 4 - - - - Total 36 2204:12 8 24 4 113 929 1 .892 3.08
Rankings
PollWeekPre 1 234567891011121314151617181920212223242526 (Final) USCHO.comNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNR–NRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNR–NR USA HockeyNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNR–NRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNR Note: USCHO did not release a poll in weeks 11 and 25.Note: USA Hockey did not release a poll in week 12.
References