The 2024–25 UMass Lowell River Hawks Men's ice hockey season was the 58th season of play for the program, the 42nd at the Division I level and 41st in Hockey East. The River Hawks represented the University of Massachusetts Lowell in the 2024–25 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey season, played their home games at Tsongas Center and were coached by Norm Bazin in his 14th season.
Season Recovering from their worst season in nearly 15 years, Lowell began the season well with the offense providing a well-rounded attack over the first 6 weeks of the season. By Thanksgiving, the team was well established as a tournament hopeful with a 9–3 record which included a 6-game winning streak. The goaltending situation was a little shaky at times but Henry Welsch was able to keep his team on the right side of the ledger with the substantial goal support he was receiving. However, by the middle of November the team was looking for a better performance in goal and looked like they would receive it when they paired Welsch with junior transfer Béni Halász. The two netminders helped lead the team to a pair of in-season tournament championships during the holiday season even though the offense cooled off a bit.
By the time the River Hawks started the second half of their season, the team had risen up to 8th in the PairWise and was primed for a return to the national tournament. Unfortunately, Lowell had to run through a gauntlet of strong opponents with Hockey East having no less than 6 programs in position for tournament berths after the new year. The stiffer competition caused the Hawks' offense to collapse with the team only managing to score 31 goals over their final 15 games. Goaltending, too, suffered over the back half of the year but Massachusetts Lowell had little opportunity to win when they needed to hold the opponents to one or two goals. The River Hawks went 3–10–2 down the stretch, sliding down just far enough so that they were on the edge of the playoff bubble with a .500 record.
Despite the poor showing in the later part of the season, the Hawks still could earn their way into the tournament. Even without a conference championship, an appearance in the title game or, possibly, in the semifinal might allow Lowell to get just far enough ahead of the other teams clamoring for an at-large bid. They met one such team, New Hampshire in the opening round but got off to a poor start. The Hawks found themselves down by a goal after the first period but spent the remainder of the game throwing everything they could at the net. UMass Lowell outshot UNH 29–13 over the final 40 minutes but only managed to score a single goal. Fortunately, Welsch was able to close the door on the Wildcats and force the match into overtime. It took less than 4 minutes for Scout Truman to steal the puck from a UNH defender, skate into the left circle, and fire a shot into the far corner for the winning goal.
With their first hurdle surmounted, the team had to travel north to take on #5 Maine. The first period was fairly even, with neither side being able to register a goal. However, second period saw the team completely melt down. Just over a minute into the period, the Hawks took the first of four minor penalties in the second. About 3 minutes afterwards, while killing a second penalty, Truman was handed a game misconduct for contact to the head and gave Maine a 5-minute power-play. The Bears were only able to score once on the man-advantage despite the multiple opportunities but it turned momentum in favor of the Black Bears and the Hawks were unable to recover. Maine rang up four goals before Lowell was able to respond in the third, but by then it was too late. UML surrendered another three goals before their season ended, finishing with an embarrassing end to a once-promising season.
Departures Gabe Blanchard Defenseman Transferred to Sacred Heart Ben Brunette Defenseman Transferred to Nipissing Adam Cardona Defenseman Transferred to Alaska Mark Cooper Defenseman Transferred to Toronto Brehdan Engum Defenseman Graduate transfer to Boston University Filip Fornåå Svensson Forward Graduation (signed with Fort Wayne Komets) Owen Fowler Forward Transferred to Maine Nick Granowicz Forward Graduation (signed with Savannah Ghost Pirates) Jonathan Horn Forward Transferred to Tufts Shawn O'Donnell Forward Transferred to Clarkson Luke Pavicich Goaltender Transferred to Arizona State Alex Peterson Forward Graduation (retired) Nick Rhéaume Forward Transferred to Northeastern Jake Stella Forward Graduation (signed with Rapid City Rush)
Recruiting Nick Anderson Defenseman 25 Portsmouth, NH; graduate transfer from Colgate Pierson Brandon Defenseman 24 New York, NY; graduate transfer from Colgate Tate Brandon Goaltender 24 Irvington, NY; graduate transfer from Skidmore Daniel Buchbinder Defenseman 20 Buffalo, NY Mirko Buttazoni Forward 20 Langley, BC Ian Carpentier Forward 24 Worcester, MA; graduate transfer from Yale Dylan Cook Forward 21 Princeton, MN Chris Delaney Forward 20 Hopkinton, MA Connor Eddy Forward 22 Victoria, BC; transfer from Northern Michigan Béni Halász Goaltender 23 Budapest, HUN; transfer from Northern Michigan Jacob MacDonald Forward 20 Fort Worth, TX Libor Nemec Forward 21 Bardejov, SVK Lee Parks Forward 19 Stittsville, ON Dominick Rivelli Forward 21 Highland Park, IL Jack Robilotti Defenseman 23 New York, NY; graduate transfer from Holy Cross
Roster As of September 19, 2024.
Standings
Schedule and results
!colspan=12 style=";" | Exhibition
!colspan=12 style=";" | Regular Season
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Scoring statistics C 36 8 12 20 6 F 32 5 14 19 16 LW 36 10 8 18 52 C 35 9 9 18 16 D 36 3 14 17 29 F 34 9 7 16 16 C 36 5 11 16 12 RW 34 8 6 14 10 C/RW 29 5 9 14 12 D 35 2 12 14 14 LW/RW 26 6 6 12 14 D 35 2 10 12 4 C 36 5 5 10 32 D 36 0 10 10 6 C 27 2 7 9 8 D 34 6 2 8 16 D 36 2 4 6 32 C/LW 14 2 2 4 4 F 10 1 2 3 2 D 17 1 2 3 8 F 26 2 0 2 0 D 15 0 1 1 4 F 16 0 1 1 0 RW 2 0 0 0 0 RW 4 0 0 0 2 D 8 0 0 0 0 G 18 0 0 0 0 G 20 0 1 1 0 Bench – – – – – 16 Total 93 155 248 331
Goaltending statistics 18 1003:09 5 8 3 43 432 3 .909 2.57 20 1174:50 11 8 1 53 454 1 .895 2.71 Empty Net - 13:12 - - - 5 - - - - Total 36 2191:11 16 16 4 101 886 4 .898 2.77
Rankings
PollWeekPre 1 23456789101112131415161718192021222324252627 (Final) USCHO.comRVNRNRNR20171515161410т10–108912810131316171920RV–RV USA HockeyRVNRNRNR191615131613109–10891389131315171920RVRVRV Note: USCHO did not release a poll in week 12 or 26.Note: USA Hockey did not release a poll in week 12.
References