Perhaps the best save of the year in college hockey wasn’t even made on the ice.
A vote last Tuesday evening by the Lowell (Mass.) City Council ratified an adjusted lease agreement between the City of Lowell and the University of Massachusetts-Lowell that will keep the school’s men’s ice hockey team playing at the Tsongas Arena for at least one more year, and most likely for the long term.
The team’s home, and with it the future of the program, was put in jeopardy earlier this offseason when the Board of Trustees for the University system announced a review of the status of the Lowell program. As part of the process, the Trustees outlined a list of demands to the City that needed to meet to keep the program playing for the 2007-08 season.
When the City’s Civic Stadium & Arena Committee voted unanimously to meet those demands a little more than a week ago, everything appeared headed in the right direction. Last week’s City Council vote, though, confirmed that. The Trustees will make a final vote on the program’s future this Friday afternoon, but with a unanimous approval to continue the Lowell program by the Trustees’ athletics and competition committee last week, this Friday’s vote seems nothing more than a rubber stamp.
With it, though, a program with a solid hockey tradition — which includes three national championships at the Division II level and three NCAA tournament appearances since joining Division I in 1985 — will keep playing with a future that now seems bright.
“It’s a difficult process to go through when it seems far removed from the actual Friday Night Lights of competing in Hockey East,” said Lowell head coach Blaise MacDonald. “Things truly happen for a reason and our plan will be very explicit and sharp for the future.
“We’ve had a very proud past with some legitimate success that we’ll certainly build upon.”
Though things certainly seem bright with the program saved, it’s hard to tell at this point whether any short-term damage has been inflicted on the Lowell program.
According to MacDonald, one of the recruits who had verbally committed to attending Lowell this fall has changed his mind. The others had already signed National Letters of Intent to come to Lowell and will honor those commitments.
Still, it seems the review process cast a dark light — one of failure both on and off the ice — for the River Hawks, despite some decent performances in the recent past.
The Lowell program is just two seasons removed from reaching ninth in the national rankings in 2004-05, and a 2001-02 season in which the River Hawks climbed to as high as No. 3 in the country — an all-time high for the program.
If you read the press clippings and listen to the rumblings around the hockey world, though, one would think the River Hawks haven’t left Hockey East’s basement in over a decade.
“Two years ago we won 20 games. It’s not like we’re on life support here,” said MacDonald. “For obvious reasons we didn’t have a lot of wins last season but talk to any coach in the league and they’ll tell you how skillful and competitive we were with a team of 15 freshmen.”
If there’s any knock on Lowell, it’s the fact that the 6,000-plus seat Tsongas Arena often seems barren during River Hawk home games. The new agreement with the city may help that as Lowell will receive more prime weekend dates and will not have to play any doubleheaders with the American Hockey League’s Lowell Devils.
Still, there’s a lot of work to be done. The program desperately needs to draw more from the on-campus student population. Though the school has been successful in marketing the Lowell program at times (in fact, it was announced this week that Lowell hockey received two national sports marketing awards for promotions last season) it still has not successfully tapped into the local market to develop a loyal fan base.
MacDonald understands that challenge but also understands his program is not alone.
“Would we like to play in front of more people? Absolutely,” said MacDonald. “But 80% of the programs in the country would like to play in front of more people.”
Whatever damage might have been done to the River Hawk program, though, is now in the past. The University needs to capitalize on this new life and look to the future, something that seems to be the focus of its head coach.
“We’re looking to the future and not to the past and I believe that our future is going to be amazing,” said MacDonald. “My direct personal experience with this program spans over three decades and I can unconditionally and passionately put our situation in proper perspective and keep our eyes on the future.”
