Feb. 21, 2009
Final Stats
Audio Recap
BURLINGTON, Vt. (Feb. 21, 2009) – Paul Worthington (Langhorne, Pa.) scored the game’s only goal and Carter Hutton (Thunder Bay, Ont.) stopped all 21 shots he faced as UMass Lowell shutout No. 6 Vermont, 1-0, Saturday night in Hockey East action at the Gutterson Fieldhouse.
The River Hawks are unbeaten in five straight (3-0-2) and eight of nine (5-1-2). They improve to 15-13-2 overall and 12-9-2 in league play.
The Catamounts had their two-game unbeaten streak snapped. They fell to 17-8-5 overall and 12-7-4 against the league.
Worthington netted the game-winning goal – the only goal of the game – at the 19:41 mark of the second period while the River Hawks were shorthanded. UML went 5-for-5 on the kill Saturday and 8-for-8 in the two-game series.
“I knew we were down and they had a couple of forwards on defense,” said Worthington. “I intercepted a pass coming through, chipped it off the boards and just took off. [The puck] was rolling. I saw Benny [Holmstrom] going to the net. I just tried to fire it on net and get a rebound, but it went it.”
The goal was the third over the weekend that UML scored in the final minute of a period.
Hutton recorded his second shutout of the season and fifth of his career with the 21-save effort. The junior netminder made eight saves in the first period, six in the second and seven in the third. He made four saves in shorthanded situations.
Hutton improves to 6-7-1 on the year with the win.
“Carter made some really, really big saves early on,” said UMass Lowell head coach Blaise MacDonald. “He didn’t handle the puck like he usually does, but when we really needed a key clear he got it on his backhand and cleared it. All the credit goes to Carter for hanging in there.”
The Catamounts out-shot the River Hawks 21-13 in the game, including a 7-1 edge in the third period. The 13 shots represented a season low for UML.
For the second night in a row the River Hawks won the special teams battle. They were 0-for-3 on the power play, but a plus-1 on the penalty kill, keeping Vermont off the board and netting a shorthanded goal.
UMass Lowell has four shorthanded goals in the last seven games. Over that time, the River Hawks have allowed four power play goals against.
Rob Madore (Venetia, Pa.) made 12 saves between the pipes for UVM, but took the loss. He falls to 10-6-4 with the loss.
“That’s the type of game we need to continue playing,” MacDonald said. “It wasn’t our best game, but it was a good road game. It was a bottom line game. We did enough to win in spite of some adversity.”
The River Hawks are unbeaten in four straight (3-0-1) and seven of their last eight (6-1-1) games away from home. UML is 9-8-1 away from home this season (including neutral site games).
The River Hawks are next in action Friday night when they visit Northeastern University for the first of a home-and-home series with the Huskies. The Catamounts next play Friday at the University of Maine.
