#17 River Hawks Win Streak Ends With 5-2 Loss to #9 Terriers

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After a terrific road win on Friday night, the #17 UMass Lowell River Hawks returned to Tsongas Center looking for a sweep of the weekend series vs #9 Boston University before a sold-out building. The River Hawks came into Saturday night’s game with a 5-game winning streak. While the Terriers were looking to snap a three-game losing streak. Your starting goalies for Saturday night’s game were Henry Welsch for the River Hawks, who took the 5-game win streak into the game. Overall he is 6-0-0 with a 2.05 GAA, 914%. For the BU Terriers, it was Max Lacroix who has no record with a 2.97 GAA, and a 912%.

It was a scoreless first period between the two teams, both had a powerplay chance, but neither could take advantage. The Terriers had the shots lead at 8-4, but it was a period that from BU’s point of view you wanted more from. The second period started with UMass Lowell on a late first-period power play with 20 seconds left. After killing the River Hawks power play, the Terriers scored the game’s first goal off a 2-on-1 that was created by a block shot inside the Terriers’ blue line. Quinn Hudson got his second of the year at 1:01 of the period off a great cross-ice pass from Matt Copponi. Four seconds later the Terriers made it 2-0 when Copponi notched his second of the year from Jack Harvey at 1:45 of the period. Just like that BU had a 2-0 lead.

UMass Lowell received a potential break when BU defenseman Sascha Boumedienne was given a five-minute penalty for grabbing the facemask. It also meant a game misconduct at 2:50 of the second period. The River Hawks got a PP goal on it as Isac Johnsson scored from Owen Cole and Ben Meehan at 6:05. The goal was Johnsson’s 2nd of the year and cut the lead to 2-1. It would be the only power-play goal they would get on the five-minute major.

After hitting two goal posts, the Terriers made it 3-1 on a goal from Harvey who took a goal-mouth pass from Tom Willander and tapped into the wide-open net on the right side. The goal came at 11:06 and was also assisted by Copponi, who to this point had a 3-point night going. For the entire period, the Terriers were buzzing around the River Hawks zone. BU made it 4-1 on a goal by Cole Hudson, his second of the year from Kamil Bednarik at 13:46. The floodgate appeared to have opened and the River Hawks looked helpless to stop it. The River Hawks went back on the PP after BU was caught with too many men on the ice. They cashed in with their second power play of the period. Libor Nemec, off a great pass from Scout Truman, scored his third of the year at 17:11. The other assist went to Nick Anderson. It was now a 4-2 game. That did not last long as Quinn Hudson gave BU their 3-goal lead back at 5-2 with his second of the period and his third of the year. The goal came at 18:46 and was off a breakaway on the right-wing side. The nightmare of a second period came to an end at 5-2. Shots were 10 for BU for a two-period total of 18. The River Hawks had 8 for a two-period total of 12.

As the third period started, the River Hawks changed goalies as Welsch was replaced by Ben Halasz. It was his third game and he was 0-1-0 with a 5.13 GAA and a 924%. BU had a chance to expand their lead base on a 2-man advantage at the 7:01 mark of the third. The River Hawks killed off both penalties. The Terriers were doing a great job of keeping the River Hawks to the outside and limiting their chances. As the game came to an end, the contest became a little chippy. However, there was no scoring in the third and Boston University ended a three-game losing streak with a 5-2 win. It also snapped the River Hawks’ win streak at five.

After the game, a happy Jay Pandolph said he “liked our effort” and thought his team came to play for 60 minutes. Meanwhile, River Hawks coach Norm Bazin thought the “better team won.” Next weekend, the River Hawks go back on the road to take on Vermont.