For the 2001/2002 Season
Which Lowell team will fans see this year? The one that got off to a disastrous 1-6 league start last year, which did include 3 one-goal losses? How about the UML that ended the regular season with an impressive 9-5-3 Hockey East finish, including clinching the Governor's Cup, finishing a first-ever season sweep of BU? Will it be the Lowell team that lost non-league games to teams like Union and Brown? Or the Hawks team that pulled off a surprise upset on the road in the Hockey East Quarterfinals over a UNH team that would most likely have made the NCAA Tournament, and doing this after losing the first game of the best-of-three series?
As if all that isn't hard enough to ascertain, there's also this: the River Hawks will be doing all this with a new coach. Lowell decided not to extend Coach Tim Whitehead's contract after their Hockey East Semifinal loss to BC (making it 15 in a row to BC), and brought in Blaise MacDonald, a well known local from the area. MacDonald left a Niagara program that he had built up from scratch and took them in just four years to the Final Eight of the 1999 NCAA Tournament. Now he comes to a program that ended last year on a high note but then suffered a huge (but mostly expected loss) in the offseason as All-American defenseman (and first round NHL draft pick) Ron Hainsey left for the Montreal Canadiens minor league team in Quebec. This opened up a lot of questions about a blue line that was mostly underclassmen last year, and had now lost their best player. The River Hawks will survive the loss of the forwards that graduated, who were respectable players but not necessarily stars. Lowell will have to also survive the loss of possibly three French players to the Olympics in February, for at least 3 games (depending on travel time) and maybe longer if the French can get out of the qualification round, which to the River Hawks fans happiness, is not very likely. The French will play Switzerland, the Ukraine and Belarus in their qualification round.
The River Hawks are one of just a few teams in the league that didn't suffer the graduation of a goaltender though, and that could be huge for Lowell. The Hawks return the surprise of last season in senior Jimi St. John, who posted an impressive 15-10-1 record for Lowell, a 2.55 GAA (good for sixth best in the league) and a 90.7% save rate. St. John and fellow senior Cam McCormick (3-5-2, 3.10, 86.6%) shared playing time at the beginning of the year through the holiday break. But McCormick's performance in a loss at the Alabama Faceoff Classic against Nebraska-Omaha was dismal, and St. John pretty much played the remainder of the season, getting sharper with more playing time. According to reports, both have looked very good this offseason and have gotten in much better shape, especially McCormick who had a great offseason conditioning program.
The questions about the defense after Hainsey left the team were mostly asked by fans around the league, but strange as it may sound, most Lowell fans feel comfortable with the talent on the River Hawk's blue line. This group might be led by the most highly regarded recruit for the Hawks, Frenchman Baptiste Amar (Rouen Hockey Elite). As previously noted in an interview with MacDonald, "(Amar) will bring to the table a lot of the dimensions that Ron Hainsey had." MacDonald also said that Amar has the ability to "quarterback the power play, really handle the puck, handle the forecheck and be able to make that first outlet pass and come out of the zone cleanly." There might be added pressure on Amar to have to make up for the loss of Hainsey, so it'll be interesting to see how that plays out. Along with McCormick, another player that got into shape this offseason was senior Kevin Kotyluk, who was benched or injured a lot last year. Kotyluk has a great shot from the point, and if he can stay on MacDonald's good side, could be a big contributor this year. Fellow senior blue-liners Chris Gustafson, RJ Tolan and Josh Allison will also have to help pick up the slack. Junior defenseman Josh Reed and sophomores Jerramie Domish and Darryl Green (last year's leading returning defenseman with 9 points) all impressed at points last year. Domish very quickly became a fan favorite with his hard hits, and not many Lowell fans at the Fleetcenter will forget his knockdown of BC's Brian Gionta. Peter Tormey is the only other new face on defense for Lowell. For followers of Lowell hockey, the name should sound familiar, as Peter's older brother Wil played for the Hawks. Tormey might compete with Domish for the hardest hitter on the team.
Returning up front is the team's leading scorer over the last two years junior Ed McGrane. McGrane has quietly put up 60 points over the last two years, including last years impressive 17-21-38. McGrane is Lowell's best sniper in every situation, leading the team in both power play and shorthanded goals. Also returning up front are seniors Yorick Treille (10-14-24), Tom Rouleau (10-10-20), Dan Fontas (6-8-14) and Ken Farrell (2-5-7) as well as Laurent Meunier (10-23-33), who is in his last year of eligibility but second with the River Hawks. It will be interesting to see if any of those players will be able to pick up their game a bit. Will Meunier go through a sophomore slump in his second year in the collegiate ranks? The question marks of the group might be either Rouleau or Fontas. If either can produce well this year, this offense might be fun to watch for the River Hawks. Another player Lowell fans would like to see pick up his game is junior Mark Concannon (2-7-9 in 19 games). Concannon, a 3rd Round pick of the San Jose Sharks, has been hurt too often in his two years at Lowell, but has been another player that took the off season conditioning program very seriously. Yet another River Hawk that caught people's attention was sophomore Peter Hay (6-3-9 in 18 games) who ended the season on a hot streak, playing very well in Lowell's upset at UNH. Juniors Geoff Schomogyi (5-10-15) and Stephen Slonina (2-2-4) will also see plenty of ice time, at least one of them most likely on the fourth line. Sophomore Anders Strome will compete for playing time with incoming freshmen Brian Boike (Lowell, EJHL) and Gerry Hickey (Cedar Rapids, USHL).
If certain things go right for Lowell this year, this team has the potential to fight for home ice for the first time since the Hawks moved to the Tsongas Arena. But if the Hawks lose their three possible Olympians (Treille, Meunier and Amar) for a long stretch of games, this team could be fighting just to make the playoffs. Here's hoping for the former! Back to Archives