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UML 2011/2012 Season Thread

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Re: UML 2011/2012 Season Thread

Even more press as the River Hawks take up most of the article in INCH's Hockey East preview:

Hockey East: Fresh Start Carries River Hawks

Huge weekend coming up. Although UNH had a rough start, they have turned it around and points are very hard to come by in Durham. We already know UML can skate with the big dogs but hopefully they're ready for a fight. Noticed that aside from UNH's top two scorers (Sorkin-12pts, Moses-11pts) nobody on the team has more than 6 points. Hopefully UML can contain their top two and can keep up with the scoring-coming-from-everyone scheme especially as DiGirolamo seems to be still finding his feet this season.

Really hope Lowell can take a couple points from Amherst, especially at home. I'm sure the players are looking to beat Blaise's team and points taken from middle-to-bottom teams in the HE standings will really help when they're in the playoff race at the end of the year.

Assuming Carr for at least the UNH game.
 
Re: UML 2011/2012 Season Thread

One thing that worries me ... this program (albeit under a different coach) always seemed to have a hard time actually receiving praise/recognition and working with it, instead of just ignoring the pressure that the praise/recognition brings with it.

This is again a very young team. How they respond to all of a sudden getting attention will be interesting to watch, and will also tell us a bit more about Coach Bazin.
 
Re: UML 2011/2012 Season Thread

Article on Joe Pendenza in the Sun today...

http://www.lowellsun.com/sports/ci_19364392

This is the kind of stuff I love to read about. Kids that grew up in MA and wanting to play for Lowell from the beginning.

It's often said first impressions are lasting. And from the moment Joe Pendenza saw his first UMass Lowell hockey game, he knew he wanted to be a River Hawk someday.

"I was 11 or 12, and I told my father I wanted to go see a hockey game," Pendenza remembered. "He said, 'Lowell's playing BC tonight, so we'll go up and see the game.' "

And what a game it was on Jan. 12, 2002. In front of an overflow crowd of 6,796 at the Tsongas Arena, the River Hawks clobbered 10th-ranked Boston College 8-4.

"It was fun," Pendenza recalled. "There was a real big crowd, and Lowell won the game. I was like, 'Wow! I really want to play college hockey now.' "

Moving from Everett to Wilmington before his sophomore year of high school at Arlington Catholic, Pendenza made it a point to attend a lot more UMass Lowell games when he wasn't playing himself ... and he also got to play a number of games at the Tsongas as a member of the Junior River Hawks.
 
Re: UML 2011/2012 Season Thread

jrobes01 said:
Article on Joe Pendenza in the Sun today...

http://www.lowellsun.com/sports/ci_19364392

This is the kind of stuff I love to read about. Kids that grew up in MA and wanting to play for Lowell from the beginning.
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Good find, and agreed completely. It's great to see a kid actually want to come to school here, want to play hockey here, and not have it be a second choice. That's the kind of kid you want to root for.
 
Re: UML 2011/2012 Season Thread

UMLFan said:
Good find, and agreed completely. It's great to see a kid actually want to come to school here, want to play hockey here, and not have it be a second choice. That's the kind of kid you want to root for.
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That 8-4 game was still one of the best ones... Kotyluk scoring after the ENG was a nice touch.
 
Re: UML 2011/2012 Season Thread

The Women's Soccer team lost to St. Rose 2-1 this afternoon, ending their run in the NCAA tourney.
 
Re: UML 2011/2012 Season Thread

Another few raw calls against Lowell, not saying its why we lost but it always seems like Lowell doesn't get the iffy calls. That is reserved for the "good" teams in HE
 
Re: UML 2011/2012 Season Thread

MBaggs12 said:
Another few raw calls against Lowell, not saying its why we lost but it always seems like Lowell doesn't get the iffy calls. That is reserved for the "good" teams in HE
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I don't know- there seemed to be bad calls all around. The worst the game ejection that both of UML's radio announcers were shocked was a penalty at all, never mind a major. After watching us the last few weeks the spark was not there tonight. No ref was helping or hindering that.
 
Re: UML 2011/2012 Season Thread

leswp1 said:
After watching us the last few weeks the spark was not there tonight. No ref was helping or hindering that.
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I just signed on to get the score; I didn't see or listen to the game. I'm a little disappointed at the 5-0 final. I thought the Hawks would have given UNH a better game. Hopefully they can get that spark back for the big game with Amherst tomorrow night.
 
Re: UML 2011/2012 Season Thread

leswp1 said:
I don't know- there seemed to be bad calls all around. The worst the game ejection that both of UML's radio announcers were shocked was a penalty at all, never mind a major. After watching us the last few weeks the spark was not there tonight. No ref was helping or hindering that.
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Agreed. Officiating was a non-factor in this game. We didn't come close to playing well enough to win tonight and will lose tomorrow if we play the same way.
 
Re: UML 2011/2012 Season Thread

boblav1 said:
I just signed on to get the score; I didn't see or listen to the game. I'm a little disappointed at the 5-0 final. I thought the Hawks would have given UNH a better game. Hopefully they can get that spark back for the big game with Amherst tomorrow night.
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Just got back from Cow Town.

Unfortunately, Bob, this wasn't a very close game at all. Sure, Lowell got 31 shots on net but DiGirolamo had maybe two quality saves all night.

Thirty-three percent of the blame (neatly defined as one period) for this game goes to the coaches. Starting Robbins was a mistake (in my opinion) before the puck even dropped. Doug Carr beat BU and Maine last week and there was no reason to let the foot off of the gas. I could understand starting Robbins tomorrow night at home against Amherst. Sure, he made some critical stops during the course of the night but did not look comfortable at all. Now, the poor kid has been shelled at BC and UNH and he's going to need a good game at home for a change to gain back some of his confidence.

The remaining sixty-six percent (namely the second and third period) is squarely on the players. Things were a bit chippy in the second period but getting a five-minute major, then a 5x3 during the back half of the major. Say what you want about the officiating (they had an awful night on both sides of the puck), but you have to score at least once during that time and if they had, it would have been a one-goal game. No matter whom is in net, they have to play for the guy. After UNH's third goal, he was waving the white flag based from his reaction. From what I've seen this season, this team plays differently with Robbins in net than with Carr. I'm just not talking about the BC/UNH debacles, you can throw UConn and even Mankato in there too.

Not much else to review, especially the second and third periods, where Lowell was simply overwhelmed to the point of complete domination by UNH. UNH appeared far more talented; bigger, stronger, and much quicker to the puck. Lowell could not break past a UNH player all night long and were out-of-sync on the big ice. It was a night to forget, similar to the one we delivered to BU two weeks ago. Maybe there is a lesson here and a needed wake-up call.

Carr needs to start tomorrow night, especially with the way things turned out tonight. Those are two points we can't afford to give away.
 
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Re: UML 2011/2012 Season Thread

No huge surprise to me, and this is kinda what I was talking about earlier today ... I really do hate it when all the positive press clippings come out, because in general the next game ... Lowell doesn't.

Let me start with ... I'm not going to get into anything about the refs, good or bad.

This was still a game when Lowell received a 5-minute power play, and then later on a 5-on-3 for what wound up being about a minute and a half or something. It was only 2-0, Robbins hadn't played badly (actually made a couple of beautiful saves) and the legs were still pumping. I'd love to see a stat of how many shots during that power play that UNH blocked, they did a fantastic job of not even having DiGi have to make saves for the Wildcats. Nothing against DiGi, and all credit to both the UNH D and their forwards, they did a great job of blocking a ton of Lowell shots. Unfortunately, UNH's third goal was the death knell for the Hawks last night.

As I said to my friends with me last night, this is going to be that type of year. The Lowell fans are going to get some good memories, and we're going to suffer some tough losses as well. This was the latter. The great thing is they have a chance tomorrow to fix what happened, and get back on the right track. Remember, on a points per game basis, Lowell is still 6th in the league.

On a different note, sorry to the UNH fans about Speelman. I've heard from a Wildcat fan that he sprained his wrist, separated his shoulder and suffered a concussion. I watched that hit pretty much in front of us live and I've now seen it on the replay, I don't think Wallin did anything dirty. Speelman seemed off balance and he was actually hit before he even got to the goal line, but unfortunately he was hit hard enough that he went sliding right into the boards. The TV guys also agreed that the penalty seemed rough (at least when they talked about it after a couple of replays, I didn't watch the entire replay of the game for obvious reasons). I do hope it's nothing that will keep him out for too long and wish him the best in his recovery.

Finally, Lowell has now played 9 games. With the schedule that this team had before the season, we as fans would have been ecstatic with 5-4. I still am. And remember, Lowell has only played 2 home games this season out of those 9 (the UConn game was a neutral site event).
 
Re: UML 2011/2012 Season Thread

That was awful.

But tonight they have a chance to salvage the weekend. Hopefully Bazin has gotten over this whole "Carr is not the #1 goalie" yet, because really we don't need another season of that crap. Robins was atrocious last night. Not saying that's the reason they lost, because when you put up zero goals what can you expect. But Carr has to be in net from here on out before this becomes a weekly guessing game. You would have thought after three straight quality wins on the road he was "the guy", but apparently that's not enough for the new regime. Let's hope Lowell comes to play tonight and doesn't waste a great chance at splitting the weekend.
 
Re: UML 2011/2012 Season Thread

UMLFan said:
No huge surprise to me, and this is kinda what I was talking about earlier today ... I really do hate it when all the positive press clippings come out, because in general the next game ... Lowell doesn't.
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QFT. This has been Lowell's albatross as long as I've been watching them. When you don't expect a hell of a lot they come out and surprise you. Once people start noticing their success and writing about the team it's like they immediately crash back to earth. Hard.
 
Re: UML 2011/2012 Season Thread

Patronick said:
That was awful.

But tonight they have a chance to salvage the weekend. Hopefully Bazin has gotten over this whole "Carr is not the #1 goalie" yet, because really we don't need another season of that crap. Robins was atrocious last night. Not saying that's the reason they lost, because when you put up zero goals what can you expect. But Carr has to be in net from here on out before this becomes a weekly guessing game. You would have thought after three straight quality wins on the road he was "the guy", but apparently that's not enough for the new regime. Let's hope Lowell comes to play tonight and doesn't waste a great chance at splitting the weekend.
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I heard last night that Carr had mentioned pre-game that he was a bit sore, and that's why he didn't get the start.
 
Re: UML 2011/2012 Season Thread

UMLFan said:
Honestly, no idea since I've never played goalie, but this is just what I heard third/fourth party style.
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Hasn't Carr had issues with his groin over the past couple years? Maybe that has something to do with it. Lowell's game plan this year seems to be get the puck to the net and out work the other team. It doesn't sound like they did much of that last night. One game at a time, hopefuly they have a better showing tonight. They need to take advantage of all the games at hand they have.
 
Re: UML 2011/2012 Season Thread

Patronick said:
Let's hope Lowell comes to play tonight and doesn't waste a great chance at splitting the weekend.
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Exactly, as dismal and as bad as that loss was last night, forget about it and focus on the fact that you have a nice little home stand over the next two weeks. The River Hawks suffered three ugly defeats at the hands of the Minutemen last season, especially the two out at the Zoo. There will be some questions answered tonight about Bazin and the leadership of this team around 9:20 PM or so tonight.

Going into this weekend, I expected a loss at UNH and a win against UMass so a split weekend was IMHO the best result in my mind. The reward for a win tonight is immense; it would put the River Hawks no worse than in a tie for fifth with Providence (also NU if they win tonight) and be even with or have games in hand against teams that are even or below them. I'd think a lot of people here would take that placing and a HE record 4-3-0 for eight points for first quarter of the schedule, regardless of what happened last night.
 
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