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NORTH ANDOVER, Mass. – The No. 7 ranked UMass Lowell Hockey team picked up a 5-1 victory on Saturday night at Merrimack in the Hockey East series finale at Lawler Arena to sweep the two-game series.

With the victory, the River Hawks improve to 10-5-3 overall (6-3-1 HEA), while Merrimack drops to 6-8-3 overall (1-4-3 HEA) with the loss.

"We are pleased to come out of Lawler Arena with two points and a weekend sweep," said Head Coach Norm Bazin. "It's tough to get sweeps in Hockey East, it was great game, it was a tight game in the first, but fortunately we scored first, which takes some of the burden off on the road."

Senior forward Joe Gambardella (Staten Island, N.Y.) got the River Hawks on the scoreboard first with 3:58 left in the first on a power play goal for his eighth goal of the year. UMass Lowell held a slight shot advantage against the Warriors in the first period, 9-8. Senior forward Evan Campbell (Port Coquitlam, B.C.) was a perfect 5-for-5 from the faceoff circle in the opening frame.

Freshman forward Kenny Hausinger (Anchorage, Alaska) extended UMass Lowell's lead to 2-0 just 5:20 into the middle stanza on the third goal of his River Hawk career. Senior defenseman Dylan Zink (Madison, Wis.) notched his fifth of the year to make it a 3-0 game less than 30 seconds after Hausinger's tally. Merrimack held a 9-6 edge in shots in the second period.

Junior defensemen Chris Forney (Thief River Falls, Minn.) and Tommy Panico (Wall, N.J.) added goals in the third to give the River Hawks their 10^th win of the season. Panico's goal was a shorthanded tally with 18 seconds left in the contest.

Jace Hennig scored his second goal of the year, which was the lone goal of the game for the Warriors with 6:49 left in the game.

Freshman goaltender Garrett Metcalf (Salt Lake City, Utah) stopped 28 shots in his first career win and second career start for the River Hawks. Junior goaltender Collin Delia made 18 saves in the loss for Merrimack.

Campbell finished the night 13-for-15 (87%) from the face off circle to lead the River Hawks. River Hawk defenseman accounted for 10 points (3g,7a) in the win at Lawler Arena.

UMass Lowell finished a perfect 4-for-4 on the penalty kill against the Warriors.
The River Hawks return to action on Friday, December 30^th against Colgate (4pm) at the 28^th annual Ledyard Classic hosted by Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H.