Previewing the UMass Lowell Riverhawks

This weekend, the Eagles take on the Riverhawks from Lowell in a crucial Hockey East home and home series. Lowell got off to a hot start to their season, beating Minnesota State twice on the road. After the sweep, the Riverhawks returned to New England but only to loose to UConn 3-2 in OT. This will be Lowell's first game in Tsongas Arena as their first home game vs UConn was played in Nassua, New Hampshire. This will be coach Norm Bazin's first game vs a Hockey East opponent and lucky him, it comes against the best coach and team in the country. The Eagles are 57-33-7 all time vs the Hawks and 40-16-2 under head coach Jerry York. 

Last time out- Eagles defeated Lowell 5-1 @ the Tsongas center on 1/29/11. 

Players to watch out for- Riley Wetmore is one of the more dangerous players in the league. Wetmore leads the team in points this year and was second on the team a season ago. Senior forward Mike Budd is also a dangerous forward for the Hawks because of his size and ability to create problems for the opposing defense. 

Goaltending- Lowell has gone back and forth between goalies Doug Carr and Brian Robbins so far this year. Robbins played the whole UConn game so I would expect that he will go Friday in his first ever start vs BC so look for BC to try to get to him early. BC has done a great job of doing that all year. 

Keys for BC

1. Get shots on this goalie. This will be an inexperienced goalie no matter who it is. If BC can just get pucks to the net on him early, good things will happen. 

2. Avoid turnovers. To many times vs UMass an NU, BC turned it over on their own Blue line. If BC avoids the turnovers, everything should go according to plan. 

3. Get the crowd out of it early. If BC can score a couple quick ones on the young Lowell squad, the Hawks and their fans will loose their momentum. 

4. With Pat Wey out, BC needs guys like Issac MacLeod, Edwin Shea and Patch Alber to really turn up their games on defense. 

Notes- Former Eagles Malcom Lyels is now a defenseman on Lowell. Lyels transfered out of BC two season ago. BC currently holds a four game winning streak vs Lowell. The last lost for BC was on 1/23/10 @ Lowell.