WORCESTER, Mass. - The Holy Cross Men's hockey team finished up the first half of the season this past weekend with two impressive games against UMass Lowell - beating the River Hawks on Saturday after a loss in a shootout after an overtime period on Friday. 

All in all, it was a good first half for the Crusaders, who really like this team's makeup. 

"I think the strengths of our team starts in the back end with our goaltenders," said head coach Bill Riga. "Our save percentage as a team is one of the tops in the country. We're 10th in the country in goals against, top 10 in penalty kill as well. We'd love to get better on the power play and jump a bit in goals scored.  We're big up front we've got some size we can play a heavy game. We try to play fast and go north as much as we can."

"I'd say some of our strengths is just our will to win," said defenseman Jake Higgins. "Guys love to get to the dirty areas and play hard for a full 60 minutes.  And you can tell the games we've won so far, we gave it a full 60-minute effort. Guys really buy into the system, that's another thing, everyone here has bought in and that really shows on the ice."

The Crusaders have a 9-7-3 record so far this season. The team is off for a couple weeks as the student athletes take their finals for the fall semester. Their next game is Dec. 30 at Qunnipiac.