
Saturday night at Tsongas Center the UMass Lowell River Hawks were hoping to split a weekend series with the Maine Black Bears. Friday night’s 3-1 loss was the result of what River Hawks coach Norm Bazin called “Lack of execution. ” He was hoping for better on Saturday night. The other problem UMass Lowell has had is winning games vs ranked teams on home ice. In their last 10 games against ranked teams, their record is 0-9-1. The team record is 11 games without a win.
Albin Boija, who was in net for Friday’s night win, started at goal for Maine. He is 14-4-2 in 20 starts. For the River Hawks, it was Beni Halasz (3-2-1, 2.14 GAA, 922%). It would take the Black Bears all of 1:54 seconds to score the game’s first goal. Nolan Renwick, the team’s second-line centerman put home his sixth of the year from Taylor Makar and Ross Mittongave the team a 1-0 lead.
It would get worse for the home team. At 7:10, River Hawks forward Scout Truman received a five-minute major and a game misconduct for a hit to the head. There were two other penalties for roughing as well. Maine capitalized as Thomas Freel, on the doorstep, slipped one through the legs of Halasz for a PPG at 9:07. The assists went to Harrison Scott and Brandon Holt. For Freel, the goal was his ninth of the year. The Black Bears came into the weekend with 22 power-play goals added #23 in the first. The Black Bears went back on the power play at 19:31 when Dillian Bentley went off for charging. The period ended with Maine leading 2-0. Shots were 21-4 Maine. It was easily one of the worst periods by UMass Lowell this season.
Before the second period started, Maine picked up an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty to end their power play. It should be noted the Black Bears are 10-0 when leading after one period. While Lowell’s play was better in the second period, the result was still the same. UML got a power play chance at 9:23 when Maine’s Frank Djurasevic went off for boarding. The River Hawks were given an opportunity to get back into the game. The power play, like the night to that point, went nowhere for UML. However, the River Hawks never stopped working. It paid off at 13:57 when Jacob MacDonald fired one from the faceoff circle past Boija for his second of the year. The assists went to Chris Delaney and Owen Cole. It was now a 2-1 game. The period came to an end with the River Hawks trailing 2-1. UML got 7 shots on goal and a total of 11 after two periods. Maine had 7 shots as well for a two-period total of 28. The third period had a chance to be a good one.
The River Hawks started pressing for the tying goal. An early chance off a 2-on-1 found Dillian Bentley taking a pass and putting a backhander on net that was stopped by Boija. Halfway through the third, the River Hawks were still searching for that tying goal. The cause took a hit when the River Hawks defenseman Ben Meehan went off for interference at 12:03. UML would take care of the man advantage. They got the bonus of their own power play as Scott for Maine went off for slashing at 14:17. It was time for the UML power play to get one. The power play ended with no goal, but UMl had three great chances that were stopped by Boija. With less than three minutes left, Lowell had to stay busy. They pulled Halasz with less than two to go. Then, they called a timeout with 1:39 left to set up an offensive zone faceoff. The River Hawks would keep the puck in the Maine zone for the entire 1:39 but to no avail. Maine won the game 2-1 and swept the weekend series.
Maine’s head coach Ben Barr liked his team’s first period. He called the final two periods “A grind.” He credited UML with making the final 40 minutes that way. River Hawks Norm Bazin could not explain the first twenty minutes in which his team gave up 21 shots on goal. He thought the seven minutes in penalties contributed to the tough first twenty. He liked how his team battled and thought the third was his team’s best period of the night, his overall opinion of the weekend was “Not the position we wanted to be in.”
But that’s Hockey East. Next Saturday, the River Hawks will host Stonehill in their final non-league game.
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