{"id":90211,"date":"2019-01-10T06:00:51","date_gmt":"2019-01-10T12:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/?p=90211"},"modified":"2019-01-10T16:41:00","modified_gmt":"2019-01-10T22:41:00","slug":"umass-lowell-looking-to-climb-hockey-east-standings-with-a-lot-of-hockey-to-come","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/2019\/01\/10\/umass-lowell-looking-to-climb-hockey-east-standings-with-a-lot-of-hockey-to-come\/","title":{"rendered":"UMass Lowell looking to climb Hockey East standings with ‘a lot of hockey to come’"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Nick<\/a>
Nick Marin, Ryan Lohin and Mattias G\u00f6ransson celebrate a recent goal for UMass Lowell (photo: Melissa Wade).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For the past few years, UMass Lowell has led Hockey East in attendance, often cracking the top 10 in the nation in number of fans in the seats per game.<\/p>\n

The Tsongas Center became a true advantage to the team.<\/p>\n

This year, though, the club has played its best hockey away from home, amassing a 7-3-0 mark, which includes a 2-1 upset of No. 2 Massachusetts last Friday night in Amherst.<\/p>\n

For UML coach Norm Bazin, he wishes there was an easy explanation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t explain it, to be honest with you,\u201d said Bazin, whose River Hawks are just are just 2-5-1 inside the friendly confines of Tsongas. \u201cI challenged the guys to be the same on the road as they are at home, and the tables got turned. I can\u2019t explain it; sometimes it just ends up that way.\u201d<\/p>\n

To this point in the season, the home\/road diatribe is seemingly consistent with the team\u2019s overall success. For Lowell it has been a season of being consistently inconsistent.<\/p>\n

There hasn\u2019t been a difficult stretch, per se. Lowell twice has lost back-to-back games, but never left a two-game weekend without getting at least a point in conference play. On the other side, though, there hasn\u2019t been any sort of streak of success. Two wins is the longest unbeaten streak, which happened twice.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s something Bazin and his club hope to change in the second half. This weekend, the club will travel to Colgate, a team that struggled much of the year but put forward two impressive wins last weekend against Quinnipiac and Princeton. This closes the non-league slate for the River Hawks, providing the last chance to gain out-of-conference wins to help the River Hawks in the PairWise.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you sweep a weekend in college hockey right now, that\u2019s a big deal,\u201d said Bazin of Colgate\u2019s most recent results. \u201cI know they\u2019re hot. To beat Quinnipiac on the road and Princeton on the road, that\u2019s no small feat. I know they\u2019re going to be good and I know they\u2019re going to be good at home.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bazin\u2019s team, though, is comprised of a number of components to worthy of discussion.<\/p>\n

Leading the way might be junior defenseman Mattias Goransson. Defensive in style, Goransson has become an offensive piece of late, registering six of his eight points over the last 10 games. He\u2019s present on the team\u2019s power play and has a solid enough skating ability to assist in the offensive rush.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think [offense] is [Goransson\u2019s] only strength,\u201d said Bazin. \u201cI think the better he defends, the better he is offensively. When he plays a really strong defensive game, I feel that he\u2019s at his best offensively.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really think his strength is to be a really good defensive defenseman who can contribute on the offense.\u201d<\/p>\n

Staying on the back end, goaltending has been interesting this year for Lowell. Bazin has two proven goaltenders. Tyler Wall led the team to a Hockey East title and within a goal of the Frozen Four two seasons ago. Last year, when Wall struggled a bit, Christoffer Hernberg led the team and earned his club\u2019s MVP honors.<\/p>\n

This season, Wall\u2019s numbers have been slightly better, but Hernberg has posted the better record.<\/p>\n

Having to decide night in and night out on which goalie is right can be a luxury, while also a difficult decision, for any coach.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth goalies are different,\u201d said Bazin. \u201cTyler is a bigger body and he exhibits a little more poise. Christoffer is probably a little more dynamic and battles.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth of them can give you some really good games. It\u2019s going to be a matter of who wants to grab the top spot here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Which brings up an interesting point, especially for Bazin.<\/p>\n

Over his coaching career with the River Hawks, while not exclusive, for the most part Bazin has tried to ride one goaltender in the stretch of a season. But that\u2019s not a formula set in stone.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had a number of different situations [with goaltenders],\u201d said Bazin. \u201cI think competition is good for every position. Goaltending is certainly no exception in my mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

After this weekend, Lowell will return to league play exclusively until the end. Currently, the River Hawks sit alone in sixth place, but are just two points out of the final home-ice spot in the playoffs and, at the same time, are three points behind leaders Boston College and UMass. The issue right now is games in hand, something that will be made up this weekend as the River Hawks are the only Hockey East team not playing league games.<\/p>\n

For Bazin, he\u2019s hoping his team has the second-half push to climb the league standings.<\/p>\n

\u201cUMass and BC have put themselves in a top category,\u201d said Bazin. \u201cBut I think [things are open]. On any given night, any team can beat anybody and college hockey seems to be playing out that way.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom my standpoint, I don\u2019t think we\u2019ve played our best hockey. There\u2019s a lot of hockey to come and I hope we can get to that point where we yield the best lineup and play our best possible hockey.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For the past few years, UMass Lowell has led Hockey East in attendance, often cracking the top 10 in the nation in number of fans in the seats per game (photo: Melissa Wade).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":90220,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[812],"coauthors":[800],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nUMass Lowell looking to climb Hockey East standings with 'a lot of hockey to come' - College Hockey | USCHO.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"For the past few years, UMass Lowell has led Hockey East in attendance, often cracking the top 10 in the nation in number of fans in the seats per game (photo: Melissa Wade).\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90211\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"UMass Lowell looking to climb Hockey East standings with 'a lot of hockey to come' - College Hockey | USCHO.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"For the past few years, UMass Lowell has led Hockey East in attendance, often cracking the top 10 in the nation in number of fans in the seats per game (photo: Melissa Wade).\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90211\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"College Hockey | USCHO.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/OfficialUSCHO\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-01-10T12:00:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-01-10T22:41:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/;http:\/\/www.photoshelter.com\/img-get\/I0000iDZVXpjFcpA\/s\/640\/388\/584H9437.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jim Connelly\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@USCHO\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@USCHO\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jim Connelly\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/2019\/01\/10\/umass-lowell-looking-to-climb-hockey-east-standings-with-a-lot-of-hockey-to-come\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/2019\/01\/10\/umass-lowell-looking-to-climb-hockey-east-standings-with-a-lot-of-hockey-to-come\/\",\"name\":\"UMass Lowell looking to climb Hockey East standings with 'a lot of hockey to come' - College Hockey | USCHO.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/2019\/01\/10\/umass-lowell-looking-to-climb-hockey-east-standings-with-a-lot-of-hockey-to-come\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/2019\/01\/10\/umass-lowell-looking-to-climb-hockey-east-standings-with-a-lot-of-hockey-to-come\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/;http:\/\/www.photoshelter.com\/img-get\/I0000iDZVXpjFcpA\/s\/640\/388\/584H9437.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-01-10T12:00:51+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-01-10T22:41:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/#\/schema\/person\/78e7586ae2a624c3924d9ed406596f54\"},\"description\":\"For the past few years, UMass Lowell has led Hockey East in attendance, often cracking the top 10 in the nation in number of fans in the seats per game (photo: Melissa Wade).\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/2019\/01\/10\/umass-lowell-looking-to-climb-hockey-east-standings-with-a-lot-of-hockey-to-come\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/2019\/01\/10\/umass-lowell-looking-to-climb-hockey-east-standings-with-a-lot-of-hockey-to-come\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/2019\/01\/10\/umass-lowell-looking-to-climb-hockey-east-standings-with-a-lot-of-hockey-to-come\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/;http:\/\/www.photoshelter.com\/img-get\/I0000iDZVXpjFcpA\/s\/640\/388\/584H9437.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/;http:\/\/www.photoshelter.com\/img-get\/I0000iDZVXpjFcpA\/s\/640\/388\/584H9437.jpg\",\"caption\":\"UMass Lowell looking to climb Hockey East standings with \u2018a lot of hockey to come\u2019\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/2019\/01\/10\/umass-lowell-looking-to-climb-hockey-east-standings-with-a-lot-of-hockey-to-come\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"UMass Lowell looking to climb Hockey East standings with ‘a lot of hockey to come’\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/\",\"name\":\"College Hockey | USCHO.com\",\"description\":\"Men's and Women's D-I and D-III College Hockey News, Features, Scores, Statistics, Fan Forum, Blogs\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/#\/schema\/person\/78e7586ae2a624c3924d9ed406596f54\",\"name\":\"Jim Connelly\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/4c7d31050418d5e7a74507617d667afd\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0f521b8fb97ad8f139da73d90c706d88?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0f521b8fb97ad8f139da73d90c706d88?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Jim Connelly\"},\"description\":\"Senior Writer Jim Connelly is a senior writer and has been with USCHO.com since 1999. He is based in Boston and regularly covers Hockey East. He began with USCHO.com as the correspondent covering the MAAC, which nowadays is known as Atlantic Hockey. Each week during the season, he writes \\\"Tuesday Morning Quarterback.\\\"\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/author\/jimbo15\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"UMass Lowell looking to climb Hockey East standings with 'a lot of hockey to come' - College Hockey | USCHO.com","description":"For the past few years, UMass Lowell has led Hockey East in attendance, often cracking the top 10 in the nation in number of fans in the seats per game (photo: Melissa Wade).","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90211","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"UMass Lowell looking to climb Hockey East standings with 'a lot of hockey to come' - College Hockey | USCHO.com","og_description":"For the past few years, UMass Lowell has led Hockey East in attendance, often cracking the top 10 in the nation in number of fans in the seats per game (photo: Melissa Wade).","og_url":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90211","og_site_name":"College Hockey | USCHO.com","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/OfficialUSCHO\/","article_published_time":"2019-01-10T12:00:51+00:00","article_modified_time":"2019-01-10T22:41:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/;http:\/\/www.photoshelter.com\/img-get\/I0000iDZVXpjFcpA\/s\/640\/388\/584H9437.jpg","width":1,"height":1,"type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Jim Connelly","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@USCHO","twitter_site":"@USCHO","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jim Connelly","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/2019\/01\/10\/umass-lowell-looking-to-climb-hockey-east-standings-with-a-lot-of-hockey-to-come\/","url":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/2019\/01\/10\/umass-lowell-looking-to-climb-hockey-east-standings-with-a-lot-of-hockey-to-come\/","name":"UMass Lowell looking to climb Hockey East standings with 'a lot of hockey to come' - College Hockey | USCHO.com","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/2019\/01\/10\/umass-lowell-looking-to-climb-hockey-east-standings-with-a-lot-of-hockey-to-come\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/2019\/01\/10\/umass-lowell-looking-to-climb-hockey-east-standings-with-a-lot-of-hockey-to-come\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/;http:\/\/www.photoshelter.com\/img-get\/I0000iDZVXpjFcpA\/s\/640\/388\/584H9437.jpg","datePublished":"2019-01-10T12:00:51+00:00","dateModified":"2019-01-10T22:41:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/#\/schema\/person\/78e7586ae2a624c3924d9ed406596f54"},"description":"For the past few years, UMass Lowell has led Hockey East in attendance, often cracking the top 10 in the nation in number of fans in the seats per game (photo: Melissa Wade).","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/2019\/01\/10\/umass-lowell-looking-to-climb-hockey-east-standings-with-a-lot-of-hockey-to-come\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/2019\/01\/10\/umass-lowell-looking-to-climb-hockey-east-standings-with-a-lot-of-hockey-to-come\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/2019\/01\/10\/umass-lowell-looking-to-climb-hockey-east-standings-with-a-lot-of-hockey-to-come\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/;http:\/\/www.photoshelter.com\/img-get\/I0000iDZVXpjFcpA\/s\/640\/388\/584H9437.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/;http:\/\/www.photoshelter.com\/img-get\/I0000iDZVXpjFcpA\/s\/640\/388\/584H9437.jpg","caption":"UMass Lowell looking to climb Hockey East standings with \u2018a lot of hockey to come\u2019"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/2019\/01\/10\/umass-lowell-looking-to-climb-hockey-east-standings-with-a-lot-of-hockey-to-come\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"UMass Lowell looking to climb Hockey East standings with ‘a lot of hockey to come’"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/","name":"College Hockey | USCHO.com","description":"Men's and Women's D-I and D-III College Hockey News, Features, Scores, Statistics, Fan Forum, Blogs","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/#\/schema\/person\/78e7586ae2a624c3924d9ed406596f54","name":"Jim Connelly","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/4c7d31050418d5e7a74507617d667afd","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0f521b8fb97ad8f139da73d90c706d88?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0f521b8fb97ad8f139da73d90c706d88?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Jim Connelly"},"description":"Senior Writer Jim Connelly is a senior writer and has been with USCHO.com since 1999. He is based in Boston and regularly covers Hockey East. He began with USCHO.com as the correspondent covering the MAAC, which nowadays is known as Atlantic Hockey. Each week during the season, he writes \"Tuesday Morning Quarterback.\"","url":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/author\/jimbo15\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90211"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90211"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90211\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90211"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=90211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}