LOWELL, Mass. -- The No. 4 ranked UMass Lowell hockey team skated to a 4-2 loss against No. 18 Harvard on Saturday night at the Tsongas Center in front of 4,951 fans.

With the non-conference loss, the River Hawks are now 8-3-3 overall, while Harvard's win lifts them to 7-1-2 overall.

"Tonight we played against a very good hockey club, we got caught chasing the game. When you chase the game against good clubs, it usually doesn't go in your favor," said River Hawks Head Coach Norm Bazin. "Overall, I thought the third period was our best period and we definitely had some looks in that period to get the equalizer, but it just didn't work out."

Harvard got on the scoreboard first with a power play goal at 9:11 by Tyler Moy, with assists from Jimmy Vesey and Kyle Criscuolo. Less than two minutes later at 10:51, the River Hawks answered back as freshman forward C.J Smith (Des Moines, Iowa) scored his fourth goal of the season to tie the game 1-1. Chris Forney (Thief River Falls, Minn.) and Joe Gambardella (Staten Island, N.Y.) earned the assists on the play.

At 17:49, Luke Esposito gained back the lead for Harvard with assists awarded to Brian Hart and Max Everson.

At 3:28 of the second period C.J. Smith tallied his second goal of the game, which was a new career-high. The power-play goal was assisted by Evan Campbell (Port Coquitlam, B.C.) and Michael Kapla (Eau Clair, Wis.) to tie the game 2-2.

The Crimson regained the lead at the 11:50 mark of the second period as Clay Anderson's slap shot from the top of the circle beat Smith.

Harvard secured their victory at the 17:55 mark of the third period with an empty net goal tallied by Esposito, assisted by Hart.

Freshman Jeff Smith (Maple Ridge, B.C.) finished the game with 20 saves, including a game high nine saves in the first period. Forney finished the game with a game high three blocked shots, while Tommy Panico (Wall, N.J.) had two. Harvard outshot UMass Lowell 24-17, including 11 shots in the first period. Harvard finished the game blocked 14 shots.

The River Hawks will be back in action on Wednesday, December 3^rd as they host UConn in a Hockey East conference matchup at the Tsongas Center in Lowell, Mass at 7 p.m.