Nov. 18, 2011

Box Score

The River Hawks were shutout for the first time this season, falling 5-0 to New Hampshire at the Whittemore Center in Durham, NH on Friday night.

UMass Lowell hockey's three-game winning streak was snapped as its record slips to 5-4-0 on the year and 3-3-0 in Hockey East action. The Wildcats improved to 5-4-2 overall, undefeated in their last seven (5-0-2), and 4-3-1 in conference play.

The Wildcats struck first in the contest, scoring in the sixth minute of play. New Hampshire skated into the River Hawk zone and Jeff Silengo (Madison, Conn.) flipped the puck from the top of the right point over Brian Robbins' (Scotrun, Penn.) shoulder, landing in the back of the net.

After play evened back out for a stretch, the River Hawks caught a break with 2:16 left in the first period as the referees reviewed a potential Wildcat goal. With New Hampshire on the power play, Nick Sorkin (Rockville, Md.) centered a pass towards Stevie Moses (Leominster, Mass.), but hit him in the body to reroute the puck into the net--the referees ruled no goal.

In the second period, the Wildcats capitalized on their third power play of the game after defenseman Chad Ruhwedel (San Diego, Calif.) was whistled for boarding. New Hampshire's Kevin Goumas (Long Beach, N.Y.) put the initial shot on net with Robbins making a great save, but Moses was there to put the rebound home and give the Wildcats a 2-0 lead at 2:59 into the second period.

The deficit grew to three goals as New Hampshire scored again late in the second. Taking the draw in the River Hawks' zone, Greg Burke (Lee, N.H.) won the face-off back to John Henrion (Holden, Mass.) who then sniped the puck past Robbins to put the Wildcats up 3-0 with 3:39 left in the middle frame.

UMass Lowell had a golden opportunity in the second period when New Hampshire's Damon Kipp (Salmon, Arm, B.C.) was whistled for a five minute major for hitting from behind at 11:27. That power play was augmented by a second Wildcat infraction to give the River Hawks a 5-on-3 advantage, but they would come up empty with the extra skaters.

New Hampshire picked up two more tallies in the third period, to push the score to 5-0. The Wildcats capitalized on a scrum in front of the net when Kevin McCarey (Baldwinsville, N.Y.) knocked in the rebound on the near side at 9:54. Soon after, Casey Thrush (Easton, Md.) beat Robbins with a wrist shot on the far side at 12:03.

For the night, the River Hawks' Robbins made career-high 34 stops, but allowed all five goals to slump to 1-3-0 on the year. His counter-part, Matt Di Girolamo (Ambler, Pa.), totaled 31 saves to improve to 5-3-1 on the campaign.

UMass Lowell was outshot in the contest, 31-39, while coming up empty on four power play chances. New Hampshire scored most of its goals at even-strength, but finished 1-for-4 with the man advantage.

The River Hawks will have a short turnaround as they host instate rival Massachusetts on Saturday night in the Tsongas Center at 7 p.m.