2025-26 Hockey East Season Preview: UMass Lowell River Hawks

With Hockey East action on tap, the Massachusetts Lowell River Hawks are making final preparations for an upcoming gauntlet, and that's no exaggeration. They aren’t just looking to win, they're aiming to return to their spot as a contender in one of college hockey's toughest leagues.

To do so, tough, they need to find their winning mojo, which has been missing of late. Since the 2021-22 season, Lowell has gone 23-40-9 in conference play, one of the worst in Hockey East during that span. That included a 4-17-3 injury-plagued 2023-24 season.

When Lowell has been healthy and able, the River Hawks have been extremely middle of the road, not bad enough to be considered a basement dweller, yet not good enough to be considered a title favorite, That adds up to average showings in the standings.

Over the past three seasons, Lowell has scored a total of 254 goals, the lowest in all of Hockey East, all while allowing 296, which puts them in the middle of the pack in defensive metrics. The offensive side has clearly been the issue for the team and it needed to be addressed. The key word is “needed,” as in past tense since head coach Norm Bazin did exactly that with this year's newcomers.

Overall, 15 players are making their first appearance in a River Hawks sweater this season, including 12 freshmen: James Johnson, Cole Lonsdale, Tnias Mathurin, Luke Shipley, Nate Misskey, Dalyn Wakely, David Adaszynski, Josh Mori, Niko Goich, Austin Elliott, August Classon and Diego Buttazzoni.

Head Coach: Norm Bazin (Lowell’99)
Associate Head Coach: Andy Boschetto (Suffolk’95)
Assistant Coach: Eric Sorenson (Canisius’17)
Assistant Coach: Dan Darrow (Michigan State’11)

Arena: Tsongas Arena (Opened 1998) 2024-25
Record: 8-13-3 (Finished 7th last season)
Last Hockey East Championship: 2017

Season Opener: Oct. 3, 7:15 p.m. vs. Merrimack

The transfers coming to Lowell this season include sophomore Dominic Payne from Canisius College, senior Samuel Richard after a three year stint at the University of New Brunswick, and graduate Jay Ahearn from Niagara University.

But the focus of the team appears to be on the developing players who showed a lot of promise early last season.

Just like New Hampshire, the team was off to a hot start at the beginning of the year, winning games and maintaining their winning ways. It was going so well for the River Hawks that at one point, they were ranked No. 8 in early January, with key wins over No. 3 Boston College and then No. 19 Clarkson at the Adirondack Winter Invitational in Lake Placid, N.Y.

It rode that momentum through the Coachella Valley Cactus Cup in Palm Springs, Calif., where it defeated Michigan Tech and Omaha on back-to back-nights. But it was as if Red Hawks lost something on the West Coast, as they subsequently won a mere four games through the rest of the regular seaosn.

Lowell survived in overtime against UNH, which went through its own collapse in February, and advanced in the Hockey East Tournament, only to be blown out by eventual champion Maine, 7-1.

The River Hawks obviously have some pieces to build around, that much is evident. However, there is one thing that has the chance to derail this developmental momentum, and it has been the same issue facing the program for the past handful of seasons: goaltending.

No one in net last year returned, it's a room full of new faces with two freshmen and one senior. Richard is the veteran, and will be expected to carry the workload — but that's exactly what he did did at New Brunswick. Over three seasons he went 55-6 with a 1.62 goals against average and .926 save percentage.

If he is able to be the guy most of the season, and he really proves his worth, the River Hawks could be a sneaky team come March. If not, and the blue paint is lit up red, then the team will once again be searching, rather than establishing.

Another key group to watch are the sophomore forwards, Chris Delaney and Lee Parks, who were true standout players during their freshman year. Delaney finished second on the team with nine goals. Parks was right behind him with eight. Those two could see significant upticks in production this season.

For the River Hawks, the 2025-25 regular season is really going to be like a pendulum, as a few key decisions, outcomes, or events could swing the season. On one hand, if the Richard and the developing players meet their potential, Lowell could be a very tough team to beat. However, there's obviously the potential for things to go the other way, especially since the River Hawks have a young team. Both a top three, and a bottom three, finish in Hockey East are possible.

We might get an early indication of which way it'll go as Lowell will host reigning national champion Western Michigan for two games at the Tsongas Center on Oct. 17-18. Meanwhile, the key stretches figure to be the three Hockey East games in December, with a home-and-home series against Boston College and a one-game trip to Maine, followed by a rough early January with two-game series against UConn, Boston University and Maine on three straight weekends.

It could come down to the leadership, which for Lowell means Bazin. In his 15th season, he's done just about everything in Hockey East and his earned the respect he receives both locally and nationally. Everyone knows to never count him out, even when his teams appear down.

So while it's easy to point to the goaltending as being crucial to the teams' success, Bazin's search for the right team mojo may be just as important, if not more so. It's been missing for some time, yet never seems to be too far away among the frozen shadows of Lowell, Mass.