Nov. 25, 2008

LOWELL, Mass. - Paul Worthington (Langhorne, Pa.) scored the game winning goal and was one of three different goal scorers for UMass Lowell as the River Hawks defeated Merrimack College, 3-1, in Hockey East action Tuesday night at the Volpe Center.

The River Hawks have won four of their last five games and improve to 7-5-0 overall and 5-3-0 in league play. The Warriors are winless in their last five games and fall to 3-7-3 overall and 1-6-2 against the league.

Worthington broke a 1-1 tie at the 6:18 of the third period with his third goal of the season. Ben Holmstrom (Colorado Springs, Colo.) and Patrick Cey (Saskatoon, Sask.) assisted on the goal.

Michael Budd (Burlington, Ont.) gave UMass Lowell a 1-0 lead at 11:33 of the second period with a shot from in front of the net. David Vallorani (Hamilton, Ont.) picked up the assist.

Budd has goals in two straight and three of four. Vallorani has points in four consecutive games.

Rob Ricci (Brampton, Ont.) evened the score just 1:03 into the third period on a five-on-three advantage. Fraser Allen (North Battleford, Sask.), who centered the puck to Ricci, and Karl Stollery (Camrose, Alta.) assisted on the goal.

Kory Falite (Billerica, Mass.) iced the game with a power play goal at 14:54 of the third period. Homlstrom and Jeremy Dehner (Madison, Wis.) picked up the assists.

Nevin Hamilton (Ashland, Mass.) earned his fourth win in goal for the River Hawks. He stopped 24 of 25 shots faced, including 11 in the second period.

Andrew Braithwaite (Kingston, Ont.) made 27 saves for Merrimack, but took the loss for the Warriors.

UMass Lowell out-shot Merrimack 30-25 for the game and 13-5 in the third period. The River Hawks were 1-for-4 on the power play and have a power play goal in nine of 12 games this season. The Warriors were 1-for-2 on the man-advantage.

"I was impressed with Merrimack's team," said UMass Lowell head coach Blaise MacDonald. "They are a difficult team to play against. We played pretty well in the second period and into the third period. We showed a lot of character killing off the rest of the power play [after the five-on-three goal]. We made a couple of pretty good skilled plays to score two big goals. It was nice to get that power play goal to give us a little bit breathing room."

UMass Lowell returns to action Saturday afternoon to host the Tigers of Rochester Institute of Technology. Game time is set for 4:00 p.m. at the Tsongas Arena. Merrimack is next in action Saturday night when it travels to New Hampshire.