Hockey East semifinal preview: UMass Lowell, Notre Dame line charts

The first of two semifinals of the Hockey East tournament features a pair of teams that took very different paths to the league's final four. After a strong regular season, UMass Lowell finished second in the conference standings behind Boston College, and the River Hawks needed all three games of their quarterfinal series to eliminate Vermont last weekend.

The other team in this matchup, Notre Dame, struggled to find its footing in its inaugural Hockey East campaign. The Fighting Irish were swept by the River Hawks during the regular season, and entered the postseason seeded eighth. With an uphill battle, Notre Dame traveled to Boston College last weekend and took two-of-three from the regular season champion Eagles, setting up tonight's semifinal showdown with Lowell.

Both team's in tonight's contest will be playing hockey past Friday night, regardless of tonight's result, as they're both pretty much locks at spots in the NCAA tournament field. But there's still a lot on the line when it comes to seeding for the national tournament, and of course, Hockey East pride.

Here are the lines for the semifinal matchup:

Notre Dame

Sam Herr — T.J. Tynan — Bryan Rust

Jeff Costello — Steven Fogarty — Peter Schneider

Mario Lucia — Vince Hinostroza — Austin Wurthrich

Thomas DiPauli — David Gerths — Mike Voran

Kevind Lind — Stephen Johns

Shayne Taker — Andy Ryan

Eric Johnson — Jareed Beers

Steven Summerhays

UMass Lowell

A.J. White — Joe Pendenza — Josh Holmstrom

Ryan McGrath — Michael Colantone — Derek Arnold

Shayne Thompson — Chris Maniccia — Terrence Wallin

Scott Wilson — Michael Fallon — Evan Campbell

Joe Houk — Zack Kamrass

Christian Folin — Michael Kapla

Dylan Zink — Jake Suter

Connor Hellebuyck

For live updates on both of tonight's semifinal games, follow me on Twiter @ev_sporer