ESPN

When UMass Lowell coach Norm Bazin sat before the media alongside players Connor Hellebuyck, Chad Ruhwedel and Scott Wilson on Saturday, the second-year bench boss looked almost bewildered.

"It's almost like a surreal experience for us," Bazin said after his River Hawks dispatched the New Hampshire Wildcats, securing Lowell's spot in the Frozen Four for the first time in school history.

Don't believe it. Bazin knows exactly what he's doing, and that's a credit to not only Bazin, but the school administrators who believed this Hockey East also-ran could rise from its old mill city surroundings and be a force in college hockey. Bazin began molding this team to be a winner from the moment he left Hamilton College (where he crafted a 48-31-7 mark in three seasons) and returned to his alma mater two years ago.

"He came in and he believed in us from day one, and he got us to believe in each other as well and he instilled some great work habits for everybody," said junior Josh Holmstrom, who was a freshman on the 2010-11 Lowell squad that went 5-25-4. "Every day that we come to the rink, we're trying to get better. That's been the goal the past two years. We didn't have anything really set in stone [as far as goals]. It was improve every day, and the results will take care of themselves. That's been one of the biggest things that he's taught everybody on the team -- just always work and try to get better every day."

Bazin not only has registered the best two-year win total ever at Lowell (52), but he has done it against a tough backdrop. Some state university trustees openly questioned whether the school should have a Division I hockey team as recently as 2007 (when the River Hawks went 8-21-7). That was before chancellor Marty Meehan -- a Lowell native and former U.S. congressman -- took the reins and empowered athletic director Dana Skinner to bolster the hockey program.

Former coach Blaise MacDonald did a commendable job, compiling winning records in 2008-09 and 2009-10, and recruited a number of the players who are now leading the current Lowell squad, including captain Riley Wetmore. However, the disastrous 2010-11 campaign resulted in MacDonald's ouster, and Bazin was brought home.

"We've got an outstanding school. I am very fortunate to be working at UMass Lowell," said Bazin, who graduated from Lowell in 1994. "We might be the storefront for the program, however there are so many exciting changes happening on campus. The tagline is 'progress in motion,' and that applies to the hockey club also."

Bazin and his River Hawks wasted little time putting Lowell back on the map, earning the program's first NCAA bid since 1996 with a 24-13-1 mark last season. They defeated Miami (Ohio) before falling to Union in the East Regional. This season, riding the momentum of a best-in-the-nation 22-3-1 stretch since Christmas, the River Hawks have taken the next step and are preparing to meet Yale in Pittsburgh on April 11.

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