Weekend preview: The Battle of Pelennor Fields

The Lowell River Hawks (14-7-0, 9-6-0 HE) vs. the UMass Amherst Minutemen (9-11-2, 7-7-1 HE)

7 p.m. Friday at Mullins Center, Amherst, Mass.
7 p.m. Saturday at Tsongas Center, Lowell, Mass.

Lowell is fifth in Hockey East with 18 points from 15 games. Amherst is seventh in Hockey East with 14 points from 15 games.

Loose pucks: Wrong side of the road result

Three things that get two thumbs up:
1) A sweep.

Getting four points is always really great. And doing it by winning in overtime on the road, even if we’d have preferred the game been wrapped up with six goals in the first period, is a pretty thrilling way to close it out. And seriously, what a weekend for Derek Arnold.

2) Proving something.

We have long held a belief that few shared: Northeastern just isn’t very good. Even when they were knocking off nationally-ranked out-of-conference teams on the road, we weren’t sold that their sub-.500 record overall was belying what they truly were. So to see them leak goals against Lowell this weekend was in no way surprising, and to see them score just two on Doug Carr made us feel, well, about the same. And look, they lost to this Lowell team at home. Not even Vermont did that, so that’s just about all the indictment we need.

3) Doug Carr.

We feel really bad that Carr had to lose last night. He was strong as he ever is and has now allowed just three goals in the last three Lowell games. How anyone sees someone else in Hockey East as a viable candidate for Goaltender of the Year is so far beyond us we can’t even comprehend it. He should win in a runaway.

Tuesday thoughts: Tangled up in blue

We will acknowledge, first, that there are a few mitigating factors here for the River Hawks that caused them to lose to the Providence College Friars tonight.

First, they never win in Providence. Ever. It’s just a thing that has always existed and apparently always will. No new coach, it seems, will be able to change that. Second, this was, of course, the third game since Friday for both of these teams, and that kind of turnaround can make for some brutal hockey; both Lowell and Providence seemed to be particularly gassed in the final period. Third, Providence is a well-coached, hard-working team that just got flattened by BU to the tune of 14 goals against and just one for, and that’s going to make a team hungry to prove it’s not anywhere near that bad.

And finally, Lowell is absolutely awful on the road.

Tuesday preview: Two points required

The Lowell River Hawks (14-6-0, 9-5-0 HE) vs. the Providence Friars (9-11-2, 7-7-1 HE)

7 p.m. Tuesday at Schneider Arena, Providence, R.I.

Lowell is fifth in Hockey East with 18 points from 14 games. Providence is sixth in Hockey East with 15 points from 15 games.

Weekend in review: Very cool

Lowell did what everyone who has been paying any sort of attention to Hockey East this year should have expected them to do this weekend: Swept Northeastern. It started with an easy 4-0 W in Lowell on Friday, where the River Hawks have lost just one game, and ended at Matthews Arena on Saturday with a 3-2 overtime win that was a bit too nervy for our liking. Four points, though, is four points.

Two other teams also swept this weekend. One was BU, which hided Providence about as badly as one Hockey East team has done in the past couple years, winning 6-1 in Boston on Friday and 8-0 back at Schneider on Saturday. Ugly stuff. Meanwhile, Maine swept BC in Orono 4-3 in OT and 7-4.

The only other two-game series was between Merrimack and UNH, with the visitors winning each. UNH won 2-1 in North Andover Friday and Merrimack returned the favor with a 3-2 overtime win in Durham the following night.

Amherst also beat Vermont at home, 4-3, on Friday but no one cared or noticed.

Saturday thoughts: And then suddenly, the moment came

As far as aesthetics go, the River Hawks’ play tonight falls somewhere between “a small child drop an ice cream cone on the street” and “fiery car crash.”

There wasn’t very much that was pretty or even especially likable about the way Lowell competed for most of the game’s 62:50 tonight, except to say that it won the hockey game and was able to answer the bell each time Northeastern scored.

But the ride to that win, and to those tying goals, was anything but pleasant.

Friday thoughts: That’s what happens

A dog dropped the ceremonial first puck at last night’s game and that, in the end, was fitting.

For their part and seemingly in answer, the Huskies, a team about whose greatness despite its position in the standings we’d been hearing all week from a bunch of delusional pompom-waving dullards, spent the following 60 minutes repeatedly dropping the ball despite being given ample opportunity to make a positive impression of any kind on us or indeed the game in which they were competing.

And really, it’s no surprise. This is, after all, a Northeastern team that currently sits ninth in the league and is only regarded as anything more than “embarrassingly bad” because it somehow won an admirable series of out-of-conference road games. But here in Hockey East, teams know their little tricks and traps considerably better, and the River Hawks, so monstrous as they are on home ice, was not to be victimized by a team this bad in Lowell. Four goals for and none against later, we really only gained affirmation of what any right-thinking person saw coming down the pike miles ago.

Weekend preview: Four points required

The Lowell River Hawks (12-6-0, 7-5-0 HE) vs. the Northeastern Huskies (8-9-3, 4-9-2 HE)

7 p.m. Friday at Tsongas Center, Lowell, Mass.
7 p.m. Saturday at Matthews Arena, Boston, Mass.

Lowell is sixth in Hockey East with 14 points from 12 games. Northeastern is ninth in Hockey East with 10 points from 15 games.

Loose pucks: Dog day afternoon

Three things that make us cheerful:
1) A home game, at long last.

By the time Friday rolls around, it will have been about 42 days since we last saw live Hockey East play at Tsongas Center. That’s 1,008 hours. It’s 60,480 minutes. And it’s close to 3.63 million seconds. In short, too many. But that will all change on Friday and we couldn’t be more excited.

2) Dogs.

No, not the mangy and probably worm-riddled specimens that will scrape their sorry hides into Tsongas Center on Friday and play our River Hawks, but the lovable, cuddly guys that will be coming as part of the school’s Pucks and Paws promotion. Bring your dog to the game if you have one because the proceeds from the dog’s ticket goes to the Lowell Humane Society. Even if you don’t have a dog, you should still give money to the Lowell Humane Society because they probably need it more than you need an extra beer at the game on Friday. Be smart out there.

3) Russians.

Lowell officially announced that its long-rumored Russian recruit would be joining the team for the second half of the season. Dmitry Sinitsyn is a 17-year-old, big defenseman and he’s supposed to be pretty good. So good, in fact, that he never played a second of junior hockey in the United States. He went right from U-16s to Lowell and is expected to play this season. He’ll be the only ’94 birthdate in the entire NCAA, which is pretty cool. One suspects that he would have gotten significantly more interest from other Division 1 schools in another season (or perhaps gone the Russian junior/KHL route) but Lowell swooped in and grabbed him while he was waiting for a new student visa. Can’t wait to see the kid play.

Weekend in review: Not cool

Lowell embarrassed itself this weekend by completely folding up tents 30 minutes into a game it was running, eventually losing in overtime, 3-2, to the Vermont Catamounts in Burlington on Friday for some horrible reason.

But at least normalcy returned on Sunday when Providence, which earlier in the week had lost 1-0 to visiting UNH, brained the Catamounts 5-2 on Sunday. UNH, meanwhile, hosted and smoked Dartmouth Saturday, 4-1.

Northeastern was another team that struggled mightily, losing to BU 4-3 at home then dropping a 2-1 decision to BC at Fenway Park, because you can never ever have enough games there. Oddly, the Eagles’ win came after it got trounced at home 4-0 by Amherst. BU completed its small weekend sweep over other Beanpot schools by downing Harvard, also 4-3 (though this in overtime) at the Bright Center in Cambridge.

And in the only complete series of the weekend, Merrimack took three points from Maine in North Andover, winning 6-2 and drawing 2-all.