St. Lawrence/UMass-Lowell Game Preview

CANTON – The best thing going for St. Lawrence heading into today's game with UMass-Lowell at the IceBreaker Tournament at the University of Nebraska-Ohama is the unknown.

“I don't know much (about UMass-Lowell) really, other than they're an older team now,” said St. Lawrence coach Joe Marsh. “They've always been a tough team for us.”

The Saints didn't even get to review game tapes or really scout the River Hawks at all.

“I don't know if we have any film on UMass-Lowell,” Aaron Bogosian said. “We know that they're a good team and we're just going to work as hard as we can and do the best that we can and hope to get the win.”

Instead of scrutinizing game film – which Bogosian said the Saints usually do – St. Lawrence is focusing on itself, working on special teams play now that the coaches can finally get involved in practices.

“We're trying to simulate game stuff,” Saints forward Mike McKenzie said. “We're working on more systems since it's the first full week of practice. Coaches are here everyday so we're trying to get our systems down more-so than our skills.”

Special teams was the highlight of St. Lawrence's 2008-09 campaign. The Saints killed nearly 90 percent of its penalties. It still didn't get them to the NCAA tournament. Instead, St. Lawrence finished third in the ECAC after playing to a 2-2 tie with Princeton to end the season.

“Consistency is what we strive for, certainly,” Marsh said. “I think we've got to get our power play and special teams nailed down a little bit. We have to be a puck-possession team. We need to get second and third chances. We have to sustain it and not cough the puck up a lot.”

That's a tough task against a UML team that returns nearly everyone from last year and is ranked No. 11 nationally.

“I think early in the season, they have high expectations,” Marsh said.

That's putting it mildly.

“It is impossible for any outside source to create higher expectations than we create internally,” UMass-Lowell coach Blaise MacDonald said in a radio interview. “We've had some really good hockey programs here over the years.”

The River Hawks were teetering on the verge of extinction four seasons ago as the school was evaluating the program's worth. It affected recruiting and even the current players.

But the River Hawks survived, and are now thriving in Hockey East. They lost to last year's NCAA national champion Boston University by a goal in the Hockey East playoffs.

“They could have beat them,” Marsh said. “Look what they did last year... They're a really tough team and well coached.”

So the Saints need to play well – especially the defense – to get to the IceBreaker championship against either Army or host Nebraska-Omaha on Saturday.

“That responsibility isn't just with the defensemen, it's on everybody, so our defense is going to be the big thing,” Marsh sad. “I think we're good up front. I think we're OK there. I think the big thing is where we are defensively.”

The Saints will soon find out. UMass-Lowell averaged nearly three goals per game (2.95), while allowing 2.26 goals against last year.

The River Hawks defeated Acadia, 3-0, in an exhibition game last Sunday. They started exactly how MacDonald anticipated.

“My expectations are: picking up where we left off,” he said. “The guys have done a really good job of controlling the controllables.”

He cited fitness and weight-lifting as ways the River Hawks stayed in hockey shape through the offseason.

They return a number of solid players – 13 of 16 forwards – from last year's squad. That dangerous group includes four 25-plus point-scorers. There's Scott Campbell (30 points), Maury Edwards (29), David Vallorani (27) and Jeremy Dehner (26).

Vallorani was named to the Hockey East All-Rookie team. The four comprise a starting group McKenzie said is a lot like last year's Saints.

“They're supposed to be a good team, I guess,” he said. “It's probably a similar team to what we had last year. It's going to be a good test for us.”

—————-

Notes:

The actual gametime for this one is a bit of a mystery, to some extent.

The University of Nebraska-Omaha has the gametime listed at 4:05 p.m. (is that Central Time? I don't know)

The UMass-Lowell Web site has it listed at 5:05 p.m. ET

The St. Lawrence Web site has it at 4 p.m. ET

Here's my game plan for listening to it: I'm going to turn on the radio at 4 and see if it's on. If it's not, I'm going to go get dinner and com back at 5 p.m.

RPI lost to UMass, 5-2.

Watch the full Blaise MacDonald video below: