MEN'S HOCKEY NOTEBOOK
Vermont (9-13-3, 4-8-2 HEA) continues the stretch run in Hockey East as they travel to the Tsongas Center for their final regular season meeting against No. 9 UMass Lowell (14-8-3, 7-6-2 HEA) Friday night. The teams will faceoff at 6 p.m. (recently changed from 7:15 p.m.) and the action will air live on ESPN+. As always it will also be broadcast on WVMT with the voice of the Catamounts Adam LaFleur in the Handy Toyota Broadcast Booth.
 
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JAX HAS A JANUARY TO REMEMBER

• First year defenseman Jax Wismer was the Catamounts' top scorer in the month of January with one goal and eight assists for nine points in seven games.
• He enters this weekend's action on a four-game point streak. He has six assists over Vermont's last four games.

CATAMOUNT FIRST YEARS FEATURED IN HOCKEY EAST MAGAZINE

• Hockey East Graduate Intern Allison Ouellette, a 2024 UVM grad and former intern with the men's hockey program, was recently on campus to interview Head Coach Steve Wiedler, Colin Kessler and Max Strand for the cover story of the third edition of the Hockey East Magazine.
• Read about the Catamounts transformational first year student-athletes at go.uvm.edu/heamag

KESSLER AND STRAND NAMED HOBEY BAKER NOMINEES

• First year forwards Colin Kessler and Max Strand were named as Vermont's nominees for the 2025 Hobey Baker Memorial Award.
• Strand (7 Gl, 13 Ast) leads the team lead in scoring with 20 points this season.
• Strand is the first Vermont rookie to reach 20 points since Alex Esposito during the 2017-18 campaign.
• Kessler is second on the team in scoring with nine goals and nine assists for 18 points.
• Strand became the first men's player at Vermont to be named National Rookie of the Month in December.
• No rookie in the country had more points in December than Strand, who recorded a point in each of the Catamount's six games.
• Fan voting for the Hobey Baker runs through March 9. Fans can vote for Strand and Kessler once a day at go.uvm.edu/vote25. 

MANGBO SHUTTING THE DOOR

• Sophomore goaltender Axel Mangbo is one of three goalies (Jacob Fowler – BC, Michael Hrabal - UMass) with two or more shutouts in league play this season.
• He shutout UMass on Nov. 9 (26 saves) and UConn on Nov. 2 (30 saves).
• He was named HEA Defensive Player of the Week on Nov. 4 and HEA Co-Goaltender of the Week on Nov. 11.
• He made a career-high 38 saves in the Catamounts win over No. 20 UMass on Nov. 24.
• Mangbo has started 11 of the Catamounts last 14 games, although Keenan Rancier started Vermont's last two contests at New Hampshire.
• In the month of December, Mangbo posted a 3-2-0 record with a .916 save percentage and 1.83 goals-against average.

PAIRWISE OR HOCKEY EAST STANDINGS

• Entering this weekend's action six of the top-ten teams in the Pairwise are from Hockey East, including UMass Lowell at No. 10.
• Seven of the Catamounts remaining nine regular season games will be against the top-ten by the Pairwise (No. 1 Boston College (2x), No. 4 Maine (2x), No. 6 UConn (1x), No. 8 Boston University (1x), No. 10 UMass Lowell (2x).
• Vermont is currently 32nd in the Pairwise. Four of their nine wins have come against teams currently ranked in the top-16 of the Pairwise.

SCOUTING THE RIVER HAWKS

• UMass Lowell enters the weekend's action in fifth place in Hockey East with 25 points in 15 games.
• They sit one point behind No. 10 UConn for the final home-ice slot in the quarterfinals. UML will face the Huskies at the XL Center on Saturday afternoon at 3:30.
• The River Hawks scoring is extremely balanced, junior forward Scout Truman leads the way with eight goals, but 10 UML skaters have four or more goals this year. Truman scored in each of the two games against Vermont in November.
• Graduate goaltender Henry Welsch has been outstanding in his career against UVM posting a 5-0-2 record with a .952 save percentage and three shutouts.
• On Nov. 16 Welsch became the first goaltender in the Wiedler era at UVM to shutout the Catamounts making 20 saves.
• The Catamounts are 16-42-10 all-time against the River Hawks and 6-21-5 on the road when facing UMass Lowell.
• The River Hawks are 14-0-3 in the last 17 meetings with the Catamounts. Vermont's last win in the series came on January 20, 2018 in a 6-3 UVM triumph at Gutterson Fieldhouse.
• Last season at the Tsongas Center UVM bested the River Hawks in back-to-back shootouts (1-1, 3-3 ties officially) February 9-10 to complete a four-point weekend on the road.

ALWAYS READY TO GO

• Among players returning this season to Catamount Country, two players played in all 35 games during the 2023-24 season, Will Zapernick and Timofei Spitserov. Zapernick has also played in all 25 contests this season.

For news and updates about the Vermont men's hockey program, follow @UVMmhockey on Instagram, X, and Facebook, and visit UVMathletics.com.

Handy Toyota is the presenting sponsor of the UVM men's hockey program