While the loss of starter Owen Savory would be difficult to overcome, the addition of grad transfer Gustavs Dāvis Grigals was expected to soften the blow.

To make matters worse, seemingly the entire conference fell apart in the second half of the year and Lowell received less credit for their wins as time went on.

By the end of the regular season, Lowell was sitting well outside of the NCAA bubble and would likely need to win the Hockey East championship to make an appearance.

Carrying a 2–0 lead into the second, the Hawks played defense the rest of the game, only getting 5 shots on goal, but the maneuver worked and UMass Lowell escaped with a 2–1 win.

In third minutes of extra hockey, UML outshot Merrimack 19–12 but it was the Warriors who managed to nab the game-winner and Lowell would have to wait for another year.