NORTH ANDOVER, Mass. – The Merrimack College men's ice hockey team begins the 2018 postseason with a familiar opponent, as the Warriors travel to nearby rival UMass Lowell to begin a best-of-three Hockey East Tournament Opening Round series on Friday night at 7:15 p.m.
Inside the Series
- Meeting for the 126th, 127th and possibly 128th time this weekend, Merrimack and UMass Lowell have been battling since 1971 back in both sides' Division II days.
- UML leads the series, as Merrimack has gone 40-75-11 against the River Hawks.
- Merrimack snapped a five-game winless stretch (0-3-2) against UMass Lowell with its win last Friday; prior to then, its last win was on Jan. 30, 2015, at Lawler Rink (2-1).
- The Warriors will be looking for their first win at the Tsongas Center since Nov. 19, 2010 (4-3), as Merrimack is 0-6-2 in its last eight meetings in Lowell.
- Merrimack and UMass Lowell are meeting for only the second time in the Hockey East playoffs; the last time was a two-game Lowell sweep in the quarterfinals in 1994.
- Merrimack is 21-31-6 at home and 17-39-5 on the road against the River Hawks.
'Mack Facts
- Merrimack finished the regular season at 10-19-4 overall with a 7-15-2 mark in league play. It went 3-8-0 in its last 11 games after a 5-2-1 stretch.
- Senior Brett Seney leads the team lead with 29 points on a team-high 13 goals, including seven that have come on the power play and one shorthanded strike.
- Two other seniors have passed the 20-point barrier in Jace Hennig (23) and Jared Kolquist (23). Kolquist is the highest-scoring defenseman on the team and has dished a team-high 19 assists.
- Seney ranks eighth in Hockey East in overall scoring and third in power play points (18); he also ranks fifth with seven power play goals.
- Kolquist, Hennig and sophomore Sami Tavernier rank sixth and ninth with 15 and 13 power play points, respectively.
- Goaltender Craig Pantano has seen the bulk of the time in net and started 23 of the team's 33 games; he is 9-12-2 with a 2.45 GAA and .914 SV% on the year.
Lowell Lowdown
- UMass Lowell finished the regular season 17-17-0 overall with an 11-13-0 league mark.
- It's been an up-and-down year for Lowell, which limped to the finish with one win its last six games (including five straight losses) and was 4-8-0 in its final 12 games.
- Sophomore Ryan Lohin leads the River Hawks in scoring with 25 points (9g, 16a) followed by junior Ryan Dmowski, the team's leading goal-scorer (11g, 11a, 22pts).
- They are two of six players on the team that have surpassed 20 points on the year.
- The River Hawk offense is quite balanced, with 14 players in double-digit scoring figures on the season. UMass Lowell has seen 20 different players score at least once.
- Junior Christoffer Hernberg has started the majority of the games for UMass Lowell in net and is 14-8-0 with a 2.09 goals against average and .921 save percentage.
- UMass Lowell ranks 29th nationally in scoring offense (2.88) and 27th in scoring defense (2.76); their power play ranks 40th (17.0) while their PK ranks 38th (80.2).
- Norm Bazin is in his seventh season at UML and was 151-68-21 at the start of the year.
Up Next
Merrimack and UMass Lowell will play Game 2 on Saturday at 7 p.m. Game 3, should it be necessary, would be on Sunday at 4 p.m. back at the Tsongas Center. A series win would send Merrimack to the quarterfinal round of the league tournament, where it would either face top-seeded Boston College or second-seeded Northeastern.
