Photo Credit: Brian Jenkins
Live: Video (B2) | Audio (WVMT) | Stats (GT)
Game Notes: HTML | PDF
Video Preview: Catamounts TV | YouTube
Milo's Blog | Media Coverage | Catamounts All-Access

BURLINGTON, Vt. - There’s no place like home. With four its first five games of the season coming on the road, No. 15 Vermont (2-3-0, 1-2-0 HEA) is excited to be back at Gutterson Fieldhouse for 11 of the next 15 contests.

“It’ll be nice to be back home in the friendly confines of the Gut,” Vermont head coach Kevin Sneddon said. “We want to play our game regardless of where we are but this crowd is special and we do gain some energy from it. It might be the right recipe that we need right now.”

The Catamounts are back in the ‘Gut’ beginning on Friday at 7:05 p.m. (Radio – WVMT) against eighth-ranked UMass-Lowell (4-2-0, 2-1-0 HEA). Vermont also hosts Providence (5-2-0, 1-1-0 HEA) on Sunday at 4 p.m. (Radio – WVMT).

The River Hawks advanced to the Hockey East Championship game last season and earned a two-game split last weekend against defending national champion Boston University. Virtually all of its’ personnel from last year is back on a team that features 11 seniors.

“They’ve pretty much been the same team for four years now because they have that big senior class,” senior co-captain Brian Roloff said. “So, for all the veterans we know what to expect. They like to play that game where they keep it on the wall, they almost take advantage of that icing rule and we know it’s frustrating to play against them. It’s another game where you’ve got to approach it like a Merrimack or a Maine where it’s going to be a grind.”

Vermont has lost two straight games, including last Friday’s, 4-1, defeat at Alfond Sports Arena against Maine. This weekend the Catamounts are looking to regain the edge they had early in the season in wins against No. 1 Denver and No. 12 Boston College.

“Going into Maine I feel like there was almost I don’t want to say a sense of panic, but there was a sense of we had to win,” said Vermont senior Brayden Irwin, who has a five-game point streak to begin the season. “So, we were playing not to lose and I think that’s not the right way to go about trying to win hockey games.”

Special teams and penalties were a huge factor in Vermont’s most recent loss at Maine. The Catamounts gave up three power-play goals, a shorthanded goal and took 11 penalties. Vermont went 0-for-5 on the power play.

The return of Wahsontiio Stacey, who missed the game against the Black Bears with an illness, and the possible return of Justin Milo, who has been cleared to play after missing five games with a foot injury, should bolster Vermont’s special teams as early as this weekend.

Vermont went 1-1-1 against Lowell in the regular season in 2008-09 before losing to the River Hawks in the Hockey East Quarterfinals at Gutterson Fieldhouse. The Catamounts hope to protect their home ice this weekend where they have gone 17-8-4 in their last 29 games.

“We feel that when we are at the best of our ability we can beat anybody, and we shouldn’t take a backseat to anybody,” Sneddon said. “So, we have to worry about our categories for success, getting back to playing with our swagger and confidence, and if we can do that we can beat anybody including Lowell on Friday night.”

NOTES: Brayden Irwin has three goals and seven points in 11 career games against UMass-Lowell … Vermont is 12-11-2 all-time against Lowell but winless in the last four meetings … The Catamounts are 21-15-3 all-time against Providence … In an interesting early season change in the Hockey East standings the four teams that had home ice in the HEA playoffs last season (BU, NU, UNH and UVM) all enter the weekend with an overall record below .500 ... Last year’s bottom two teams in Hockey East, Providence and Merrimack, enter the weekend a combined 10-5 … Vermont has just three goals in its last two games after scoring 16 in the first three contests.