LOWELL, Mass. – Junior forward Robert Francis (San Diego, Calif.) notched two goals to lead the No. 4 ranked UMass Lowell hockey team to a 5-3 victory against Penn State on Friday night at the Tsongas Center.

Junior goaltender Kevin Boyle (Manalapan, N.J.) made 34 saves, his second highest total in a River Hawk uniform, for his fourth win of the season.

"I thought we had a good start tonight, we knew they would be rested and ready to go, the start helped," said Head Coach Norm Bazin. "I thought we shot the puck well, we got some key shot blocks in the third period and I liked our bench energy tonight, so overall it was a good effort."

UMass Lowell (7-1-2 overall)  took a 2-0 lead into the first intermission behind goals from Francis and Zack Kamrass (Atlanta, Ga.). At 11:13 of the first Francis received a pass from Adam Chapie (Oxford, Mich.) in between the circles and fired off a shot that was originally saved by Matthew Skoff, but the puck snuck out and rolled behind him and in.

With 1:14 remaining in the period Chris Maniccia (St. Catherines, Ontario) fed Kamrass from behind the net and the senior let a slapshot go from in between the circles, for his first goal of the season.

The Nittany Lions (5-2-2) took no time cutting into the lead once the second period began, scoring 17 seconds into the stanza. Casey Bailey gathered a loose puck off Boyle's pads and used a high backhand to put the puck into the net.

UMass Lowell regained the two-goal lead at 18:03 of the second when Joe Gambardella (Staten Island, N.Y.), skating along the boards, found John Edwardh (Calgary, Alberta) streaking all alone at the top of the circles and fed him into the middle of the circles.

Francis scored his second goal of game at with 11:13 left in the second period to make it 4-1. Maniccia won a face off and Francis gathered the puck before it left the circle and one-timed a wrist shot past Skoff.
The Nittany Lions came out strong in the third period but couldn't get the puck into the net when Kenny Brooks hit both posts less than two minutes into the period.

C.J. Smith (Des Moines, Iowa) scored what turned into an insurance goal with 11:39 left in the third period for the 5-1 lead. The freshman received a pass from Dylan Zink (Madison, Wis.) at the top of the circles and fired it home for his third goal of the season.

Penn State scored the final two goals of the night at 11:12 when Tommy Olczyk received a pass from behind net from Curits Loik, and went forehand-backhand to beat Boyle. The lead got trimmed to 5-3 at 18:45 when David Goodwin capitalized on Taylor Holstrom's second assist of the night.

The Nittany Lions outshot the River Hawks 37-30, including edges of 11-9 in the first and 15-9 in the third. Skoff made eight saves and got pulled after the fourth River Hawk goal. Eamon McAdam made 17 saves in 31:13 minutes of relief.

Maniccia joined Holstrom with two assists on the night and Evan Campbell led the team with five shots. Bailey had six shots to lead the visitors.

Both teams return to action tomorrow night at the Tsongas Center for a 7 p.m. faceoff.