UMass Lowell Defeats Northeastern University, 3-1

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Looking to snap a three-game losing streak, the UMass Lowell River Hawks (15-11-3, 8-9-2) hosted Northeastern University (10-15-3, 5-10-3) on Saturday night before 5,009 at Tsongas Center. UML is slipping down in the Hockey East standings starting play on Saturday night in 6th place. With that in mind, head coach Norm Bazin did some line juggling to try and get his team back on track.

With their win on Friday night at Matthews Arena, the Huskies snapped a two-game losing streak of their own. On Saturday night, NU went back to Quentin Sigurdson in net. On Friday night, he made 34 stops helping the Huskies to a 2-0 shutout win. His record is 1-1-0 with a 1.02 GAA, .962%. He was opposed by Henry Welsch who was in goal on Friday night. Henry has a 9-5-1 record with a 2.47 GAA, 898%.

The first period was a scoreless one. Northeastern had two power play (7/75, .093) opportunities and their first chance came at 12:07 when River Hawks center iceman Dillian Bentley went off for Slashing. Then at 17:25, Dominick Rivelli was sent off for kneeing. Both power plays were unsuccessful and were killed off by the River Hawks penalty unit, which was at 80.2% (65/81). The first period ended 0-0 with Northeastern outshooting UML by a 7-5 count. With that scoreless period, the River Hawks had gone seven straight periods without a goal vs the Huskies.

The Huskies did score first at 3:06 of the second period as Griffin Erdman, off a nice cross-ice feed from Andy Moore, beat Welsch high to the glove side for his 11th of the year. Billy Norcross also assisted on the goal. The River Hawks got a huge break when Jake Boltmann had his night come to an end at 3:33 when he took a major penalty for cross-checking and game misconduct. UMass Lowell’s power play was at .216% (17-78) and Northeastern’s penalty killing was at .765% 65-of-85. With ten seconds left on the major, UML got a 5-on-3 chance as Ben Poitras took a slashing penalty at 8:24. That power play went nowhere and the River Hawks had seven straight minutes of PP and had nothing to show for it. Northeastern almost had a two-goal lead as on a clean breakaway but Nick Rheaume was stopped by Welsch.

UML would get a third PP of the period as Dylan Hryckowian went off at 15:04 for slashing. This power play chance had better results. Lee Parks stuffed home a loose puck at the left side of the crease for his 6th of the year at 16:24. Assists went to Mirko Buttazzoni and Dominick Rivelli. UML was now 1-for-3 on the PP. The game was tied at 1-1. Shots were 10 for UML, 9 for Northeastern and through two periods it was 15 for UML and 16 for Northeastern.

A big third period was ahead for both teams. UMl took advantage off a stick check in the neutral zone. Pierson Brandon skated across the blue line and let go of a low slap shot from the left wing side that beat Sigurdson to the glove side at 3:14. 2-1 River Hawks. With six minutes left, the River Hawks were in good shape to pick up a much-needed win. With 1:54 left, Northeastern head coach Jerry Keefe pulled his goalie. It would result in an empty net goal for the River Hawks. Jak Vaarwerk got his 5th of the year from just outside the Huskies’ blue line at 18:18. Assists went to Matt Crasa and Mitchell Becker. UMass Lowell picked up a much-needed 3-1 regulation win. Shots in the third were 11 for UMass Lowell and a three-period total of 26, Northeastern got five and 21 for the game.

After the game, Coach Keefe “liked the way Lowell protected the lead.” He was also happy with the way his PK performed, especially in the second period. Coach Norm Bazin was happy with the result. He thought his team was more connected than on Friday night.