UMass Lowell River Hawks men's ice hockey
| University of Massachusetts Lowell River Hawks men's ice hockey | |
|---|---|
 Current season | |
 | |
| University | University of Massachusetts Lowell |
| Conference | Hockey East |
| First season | 1967 |
| Head coach |
Norm Bazin 6th year, 127–58–20 (.668) |
| Captain(s) | Michael Kapla |
| Alternate captain(s) |
Joe Gambardella Tyler Mueller |
| Arena |
Tsongas Center at the University of Massachusetts Lowell Capacity: 7,326[1] Surface: 200' x 85' |
| Location | Lowell, Massachusetts |
| Colors |
Blue, White, and Red |
| Fight song | River Hawk Pride[2] |
| Mascot | Rowdy the River Hawk |
| NCAA Tournament Frozen Four | |
| 2013 | |
| NCAA Tournament Appearances | |
| 1988, 1994, 1996, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016 | |
| Conference Tournament Champions | |
| 2013, 2014 | |
| Conference Regular Season Champions | |
| 2013 | |
| Current uniform | |
 | |
The UMass Lowell River Hawks men's ice hockey team is the college ice hockey team that represents the University of Massachusetts Lowell. It competes at the NCAA Division I level in the Hockey East Association.[3] The team competed at the Division II level until 1983. UMass Lowell won their first ever Hockey East title in 2013 over Boston University, also winning their first regular season title in the HEA. The River Hawks made their first Frozen Four in 2013 as well. UMass Lowell would repeat as Hockey East champions in 2014.
The River Hawks have played at The Tsongas Center at UMass Lowell since its opening in January 1998.
Program history
Early years
The roots of the current hockey program can be traced back to the Lowell Technological Institute where hockey started as a club program in 1965–66 named the Terriers and coached by Richard Morrison. The program initially used the Billerica Forum for practices and home games. [4] The original rink was outdoors at Cushing Field on North Campus. In 1969 Coach Bill Riley was hired to take over the program and was at the helm of a very colorful run for the next 21 years. After the 1975 merger with Lowell State College to become University of Lowell, the hockey program had become known as the Chiefs in the early 1970s, but were still without a proper facility. Lack of a proper rink was no deterrent for Coach Riley, who benefited from talent being produced locally due to popularity of Bobby Orr and the Big Bad Bruins of the late 1960s and early 1970s.
For the decade of the ULowell program years "home" games were conducted in a nomadic manner with the team never playing near campus, as no such facility existed in Lowell. Games were played mostly at Skate 3 in Tyngsborough and it was still technically ULowell's home rink during their first Division 2 Championship run in 1979. In 1980 the University was able to purchase the Merrimack Valley Forum after the allocation of money pushed for by State Senator B. Joseph Tully. The money, however, only provided for the purchase of the structure and land. Though only constructed in 1964, the Merrimack Valley Forum was called a "pig pen" by Coach Riley. A few years later, State Senator Phil Shea was able to secure $500,000 in funding for renovations of the Forum. The coaching staff became the foreman and applied for federal job training grants in order to bring in tradespeople to help with the work. Soon the Chiefs had a place they could call home and rechristened it as Tully Forum.[5]
The Riley era
During the team's formative years in the early 1970s, the Chiefs had no conference affiliation besides a loose one with surrounding schools in the ECAC. By the mid-1970s, Riley had started to assemble the core of players who would lead to ULowell to their first national championship: Tom Jacobs from Hudson, Dean Jenkins from Billerica, and future NHL regular Craig McTavish. However, an envious spat began in the Merrimack Valley between Lowell and Merrimack just up the road in North Andover. Merrimack's hockey program was what Lowell had aspired to be: a national contender with a modern home rink on campus. Up until the 1978–79 season the Merrimack-ULowell rivalry stood at a very one sided 1–13–1 in Merrimack's favor.
With a new post season tournament being sponsored by the NCAA in 1978 Merrimack crushed the competition including U Lowell in the ECAC tournament and followed it up by going on a tournament run without challenge, defeating both Mankato State and Lake Forest by a combined score of 18–3. The obsession with Merrimack had grown and festered from the year before. With some advance scouting Coach Riley believed 1979 was the year the Chiefs would jump onto the national stage.
With the help of his student section dubbed the Wild Men Riley wanted to crack the Merrimack goalie as their defensive depth had been had taken an early season hit. Their first meeting came right before Thanksgiving and theme of turkeys became prevalent in the Wild Men's antics toward Merrimack. The leader of the Wild Men went as far as to send super imposed pictures of a turkey attached to the Merrimack Goalie to his dorm room. Even Coach Riley had a troll up his sleeve and sent the Wild Men's leader up New Hampshire to purchase a wild turkey and tie it up in front of the Merrimack goal. Once the turkey hit the ice it slipped and hit its head on the ice passing out cold and leaving a pile of scat in the Merrimack crease. The pranks and the trolling did not faze the Merrimack Goalie.
"We outshot them something like three to one because they were so weak on defense," says Riley, "but wouldn't you know, they still tied us, 3–3. It was all our own fault because the goalie was damned if he was going to let the puck in the net."[5]
Going into the 1979 and speaking at an Alumni dinner trying drum up support for the hockey program Coach Riley wrote a very big check with his wordage toward the upcoming season.
"We had an alumni fundraiser before the season, and I was up on the podium trying to jazz up the alumni," Riley related. "I don't remember what I said at the beginning of my speech, but at the end I said that if we don't win the national championship this year, it will be a disappointing season.[6]
Still playing at Skate 3 in Tyngsboro Coach Riley sought to distill an attitude of us against the world according to members of the 1979 Chiefs team. Team morale was not very high and the Chiefs struggled in the early part of the season.
We were playing like a bunch of punks,” says Riley. “I was so mad, I hit the locker room door as hard as I could to prove a point. Sometimes, you role play as a coach. I could even put tears in my eyes to emphasize a point. But this time I didn’t have to role play. I was really mad. As soon as I hit it, I knew I’d broken something. The next day, I walked in and had it in a cast. I was hiding it inside my sports jacket. For three-quarters of the pre-game meal, I looked like Napoleon. Of course, there was no real hiding it. It was pretty embarrassing, says Riley. I’d go to the bank teller and she’d say, What happened to your arm? Oh, you don’t want to know. No, tell me, what happened to your arm? Well, I punched a locker room door. And she’d give me that look, like, Oh, how childish, how juvenile, how immature.
After that point U Lowell went 24–2 and with addition of future All American Paul Lohnes of the Blue Line and Mark Jenkins who had transferred from Union forgoing a pro contract to use his last year of eligibility to play with his brother Dean. Thing began to click for the Chiefs and even rival Merrimack could not escape the wrath of the Chiefs who had been 1–13–1 against Merrimack until the 1978–79 season. After narrowly beating Salem State in the ECAC Championship, Lowell made their first appearance in the Division 2 National Championship. Being hosted at Volpe Center in Merrimack gave Lowell de facto home ice and they cruised past Illinois-Chicago in the semifinal game and made very easy work of Mankato State in the Championship game winning 6–4.
2 in 3 : Bump to Division 1
After moving into Tully in 1980 and making the barn on Rte. 129 a permanent home for the Chiefs, the program was rewarded with two more national championships in 1981 & 1982 with same core group of guys from the 1979 run. In 1981 ULowell was facing Plattsburgh State (NY) for the Championship at Tully Forum. Knowing Dave Poulin on Plattsburgh State was prone to spastic reactions when thrown off his game, Coach Riley set in on him to take him out of the game mentally. Poulin was to be pressured, hit, and squeezed by the Chiefs players. The strategy worked until Poulin who had been sent off the ice early ran into some trouble in the locker room underneath the stands.
The kid was so mad, he starting pulling the pipes off the wall, says Riley. Eventually, he pulled off the water pipes. The rink manager came over to me while the second period was still going and said, ‘Listen, Billy, that big forward Poulin from Plattsburgh pulled the pipes right out of the wall. There’s water spraying all over their locker room. What do you want me to do? I said, You know what I want you to do. Don’t do a thing until the third period. Then turn the water off. Sure enough, the Plattsburgh team was going into the third period for the national championship and they had water spraying all over their locker room during intermission. They probably went in the showers to stay dry.
During this time the rivalry with Merrimack was a more even match the hate or one might say envy for the school in North Andover burned the same in Coach Riley.
I was ranting and raving, he says. I got to the end of my vociferous dialogue and said, ‘I hate Merrimack. I hate their school. I hate the color of their uniforms. I hate the Indian chief on their shirts…‘I even hate their #$%@& zip code. I had just run out of things to hate, he says laughing.What you have to understand,” he adds with a straight face, “is that we had always looked up to Merrimack, so what I said, I said affectionately.
All-Americans
| Year | Player |
|---|---|
| 1979 | Tom Jacobs |
| 1979 | Craig McTavish |
| 1980 | Dean Jenkins |
| 1980 | Paul Lohnes |
| 1980 | Tom Mulligan |
| 1981 | Dean Jenkins |
| 1981 | Paul Lohnes |
| 1982 | Ken Kaiser |
| 1982 | Paul Lohnes |
| 1982 | John Makenzie |
| 1983 | Mike Carr |
| 1987 | Jon Morris |
| 1994 | Shane Henry |
| 1994 | Dwayne Roloson |
| 1995 | Greg Bullock |
| 2001 | Ron Hainsey |
| 2009 | Maury Edwards |
| 2013 | Chad Ruhwedel |
| 2014 | Connor Hellebuyck |
Coaches
| Coach | Years | Overall Record |
|---|---|---|
| Richard Morrison | 1967–1969 | 11–16–1 |
| Bill Riley | 1969–1991 | 363–270–22[7] |
| Bruce Crowder | 1991–1996 | 99–75–19[8] |
| Tim Whitehead | 1996–2001 | 76–93–11 |
| Blaise MacDonald | 2001–2011 | 145–183–42 |
| Norm Bazin | 2011–present | 78–35–7[9] |
Roster
As of January 19, 2016.[10]
| # | S/P/C | Player | Class | Pos | Height | Weight | DoB | Hometown | Previous team | NHL rights |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 |  |
Panico, TommyTommy Panico | Sophomore | D | 6' 1" (1.85 m) | 200 lb (91 kg) | 1995-03-24 | Wall, New Jersey | Muskegon (USHL) | — |
| 3 |  |
Kapla, MichaelMichael Kapla (C) | Junior | D | 6' 0" (1.83 m) | 200 lb (91 kg) | 1994-09-19 | Eau Claire, Wisconsin | Sioux City (USHL) | — |
| 4 |  |
Forney, ChrisChris Forney | Sophomore | D | 6' 2" (1.88 m) | 200 lb (91 kg) | 1994-11-20 | Thief River Falls, Minnesota | Langley (BCHL) | — |
| 5 |  |
Gambardella, JoeJoe Gambardella (A) | Junior | F | 5' 9" (1.75 m) | 200 lb (91 kg) | 1993-12-01 | Staten Island, New York | Des Moines (USHL) | — |
| 6 |  |
Berisha, AvniAvni Berisha | Freshman | D | 5' 11" (1.8 m) | 205 lb (93 kg) | 1994-06-15 | Lake Ariel, Pennsylvania | Sioux City (USHL) | — |
| 7 |  |
Mueller, TylerTyler Mueller | Sophomore | D | 6' 1" (1.85 m) | 195 lb (88 kg) | 1994-06-13 | Regina, Saskatchewan | Sioux City (USHL) | — |
| 8 |  |
Campbell, EvanEvan Campbell | Junior | F | 6' 1" (1.85 m) | 205 lb (93 kg) | 1993-03-01 | Port Coquitlam, British Columbia | Langley (BCHL) | EDM, 128th overall 2013 |
| 9 | |
Master, NickNick Master | Freshman | F | 5' 11" (1.8 m) | 185 lb (84 kg) | 1995-01-28 | Broomall, Pennsylvania | Tri-City (USHL) | — |
| 10 |  |
McGrath, RyanRyan McGrath | Senior | F | 5' 7" (1.7 m) | 175 lb (79 kg) | 1991-07-13 | O'Fallon, Missouri | Cedar Rapids (USHL) | — |
| 11 |  |
Dmowski, RyanRyan Dmowski | Freshman | F | 6' 1" (1.85 m) | 205 lb (93 kg) | 1997-03-18 | East Lyme, Connecticut | Des Moines (USHL) | — |
| 12 |  |
Hough, GageGage Hough | Sophomore | F | 6' 0" (1.83 m) | 210 lb (95 kg) | 1993-03-27 | Omaha, Nebraska | Omaha (USHL) | — |
| 13 |  |
, Adam ChapieAdam Chapie (A) | Senior | F | 6' 1" (1.85 m) | 185 lb (84 kg) | 1991-07-06 | Oxford, Michigan | New Mexico (NAHL) | — |
| 15 | |
Louria, MichaelMichael Louria | Sophomore | F | 5' 11" (1.8 m) | 195 lb (88 kg) | 1994-03-13 | Wexford, Pennsylvania | Minot (NAHL) | — |
| 16 |  |
Francis, RobertRobert Francis | Senior | F | 5' 8" (1.73 m) | 170 lb (77 kg) | 1991-01-04 | San Diego, California | Western Michigan (CCHA) | — |
| 17 |  |
Wilson, ConnorConnor Wilson | Freshman | F | 5' 10" (1.78 m) | 165 lb (75 kg) | 1995-04-05 | Calgary, Alberta | Canmore (AJHL) | — |
| 18 | |
White, A. J.A. J. White (C) | Senior | F | 6' 2" (1.88 m) | 210 lb (95 kg) | 1992-04-19 | Dearborn, Michigan | Michigan (NAHL) | — |
| 19 |  |
Smith, C. J.C. J. Smith | Sophomore | F | 5' 11" (1.8 m) | 185 lb (84 kg) | 1994-12-01 | Des Moines, Iowa | Chicago (USHL) | — |
| 21 | .svg.png){kind=small} |
Kamrass, JakeJake Kamrass | Sophomore | F | 6' 1" (1.85 m) | 190 lb (86 kg) | 1994-03-28 | Atlanta, Georgia | Topeka (NAHL) | — |
| 22 |  |
Collins, RyanRyan Collins | Sophomore | F | 6' 1" (1.85 m) | 205 lb (93 kg) | 1993-09-23 | Newton, Massachusetts | Ottawa (CCHL) | — |
| 23 |  |
Fallon, MichaelMichael Fallon | Senior | F | 5' 11" (1.8 m) | 180 lb (82 kg) | 1991-06-08 | Glenview, Illinois | Chicago (USHL) | — |
| 25 | |
Zink, DylanDylan Zink | Junior | D | 5' 10" (1.78 m) | 180 lb (82 kg) | 1992-10-08 | Madison, Wisconsin | Jamestown (NAHL) | — |
| 27 |  |
Folin, NiklasNiklas Folin | Freshman | D | 6' 1" (1.85 m) | 190 lb (86 kg) | 1994-01-21 | Kungsbacka, Sweden | Omaha (USHL) | — |
| 28 |  |
Townsend, JakeJake Townsend | Freshman | D | 6' 0" (1.83 m) | 175 lb (79 kg) | 1994-08-08 | Highlands Ranch, Colorado | Wichita Falls (NAHL) | — |
| 29 | |
Edwardh, JohnJohn Edwardh | Sophomore | F | 5' 11" (1.8 m) | 190 lb (86 kg) | 1995-02-03 | Calgary, Alberta | Okotoks (AJHL) | — |
| 30 | |
Cleary, SeanSean Cleary | Freshman | G | 6' 3" (1.91 m) | 195 lb (88 kg) | 1995-10-28 | Centerville, Massachusetts | Victoria (BCHL) | — |
| 31 |  |
Hernberg, ChristofferChristoffer Hernberg | Freshman | G | 6' 0" (1.83 m) | 195 lb (88 kg) | 1995-03-21 | Espoo, Finland | Blues U20 (Nuorten SM-liiga) | — |
| 33 | |
Boyle, KevinKevin Boyle | Senior | G | 6' 1" (1.85 m) | 200 lb (91 kg) | 1992-05-30 | Manalapan, New Jersey | UMass (HEA) | — |
References
- ↑ "Balanced offense pushes UMass Lowell past Boston College". Mill City Sports. October 10, 2014. Retrieved February 5, 2015.
- ↑ "UMass Lowell unveils first ever fight song". Mill City Sports. September 3, 2014. Retrieved February 5, 2015.
- ↑ UMass Lowell Official Athletic Site
- ↑ See Lowell Tech 1965-1966 Yearbook
- 1 2 Hendrickson, David H. (1998-01-28). "A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To Tully Forum". uscho.com. Retrieved 2015-09-23.
- ↑ Scoggins, Chaz (2007-08-06). "Chiefs rose to the top 25 years ago". Retrieved 2015-09-23.
- ↑ Won 3 NCAA Division 2 Champions : 1 NCAA D1 Tournament Appearance
- ↑ 2 NCAA D1 Tournament Appearance 1994 : 1996
- ↑ Hockey East Championship 2013 : 2014 NCAA D1 Tournament Apperaces 2012 : 2013 : 2014 Frozen Four Appearance 2013
- ↑ "2015–16 Men's Ice Hockey Roster". UMass Loweel River Hawks. Retrieved January 19, 2014.
External links
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