Schedule Release

Mark the dates on the calendar, or just pick up one of those magnetic schedules. The 2009-2010 schedule was released for the UMass Lowell Riverhawks Hockey team on June 4. The ‘Hawks will have 17 home games this upcoming season and two tournaments as they look to earn their first Hockey East championship, and first NCAA tournament appearance since 1996.

UMass Lowell opens up the regular season in the city that screams hockey, Omaha, Nebraska. The ‘Hawks will be a part of the Ice Breaker Tournament taking on St. Lawrence on Oct. 9. They follow that up against either Army or Nebraska-Omaha the next day.

As if Nebraska was not a nice enough place to play hockey UMass Lowell travels to Alabama to take on the Chargers of Alabama-Huntsville on Nov 13 and 14. UAH played two games at the Tsongas Arena two years ago, losing both to Lowell

The first home game of the regular season for the ‘Hawks will be Oct. 23 in a non-conference game against Colgate in a rematch from last year. The other non-conference opponent playing in the mill city will be Princeton in the final two games before Christmas in Dec. 11 and 12. UML is 3-0-0 all time against Princeton.

Lowell has a tough stretch in November which thy play three games in less then a week. After a Saturday afternoon game on Nov. 21 against Merrimack the ‘Hawks travel to Providence on Nov. 24 for a Tuesday night game followed by a home game the day after Thanksgiving against Maine.

The River Hawks get their first chance at revenge early as they take on Defending National champion Boston University, the team that beat Lowell in the Hockey east Title game, in a home and home series on Oct. 30 and Oct. 31.

Before Lowell takes on the Terriers they begin their conference action against Northeastern on Oct. 24 at the Tsongas Arena. After a dramatic win in overtime against Northeastern in the Hockey East semifinals the schedule makers wanted to create the possibility of the Huskies and River Hawks playing against each other four times in the regular season. Therefore, Lowell and Northeastern will both be a part of the Dartmouth Tournament held at Dartmouth University on Jan. 2 and 3. Along with the two teams from Hockey East will be the host, Dartmouth University, and the College of the Holy Cross.

After the Dartmouth Tournament the ‘Hawks will finish the season with 17 straight games against Hockey East opponents. This stretch includes three games against Boston College, and a weekend series at the University of Maine.

UMass Lowell ends their regular season with a weekend series at home against Vermont. The last time Lowell and Vermont met was the first round of the Hockey East tournament when the ‘Hawks upset the Catamounts with a two game sweep at Vermont.

The schedule will be tough, but for a team in Hockey East that is expected, especially when that team was one goal away from winning the hockey east Championship. The River Hawks look to overcome this tough schedule, with lots of traveling early in the season, and take another shot at winning Hockey East and reaching the NCAA tournament.

With three more regular season games at home then last year look for support from the students and fans to be bigger this year then the record amounts set last season.