AMHERST, Mass. – Senior goaltender
Christoffer Hernberg (Espoo, Finland) recorded 33 saves in his fourth win of the year to lead the UMass Lowell Hockey team to a 2-1 road victory at No. 2 Massachusetts on Friday night in Hockey East play at the Mullins Center.
The River Hawks improve to 9-8-1 overall (5-4-1 HEA), while UMass falls to 14-3-0 overall (7-1-0 HEA), handing the Minutemen their first loss in league play this season.
"I was very pleased to pick up two points on the road against a good opponent," said UMass Lowell Head Coach
Norm Bazin. "Any points in Hockey East are good points, especially in the second half. That was a real positive for us, he (Hernberg) has come up with some real good efforts on the road, I thought he played really well."
UMass' Niko Hildenbrand got the Minutemen on the board to cut the River Hawks' lead to 2-1 at 7:20 of the middle stanza, which closed out the scoring in the Hockey East contest.
Senior co-captain
Connor Wilson (Calgary, Alberta) gave the River Hawks a 2-0 advantage less than three minutes into the second period with a wrist shot for his fifth tally of the year.
Freshman forward
Reid Stefanson (Winnipeg, Manitoba) opened the scoring in the game to give the River Hawks a 1-0 lead on a breakaway from his third career goal at 7:50 of the first frame. Stefanson also won a game-high seven face offs in the win.
Hernberg stopped 10 shots in the first period, followed by 11 in second and tallied 12 saves in the final stanza. His counterpart Matt Murray stopped 19 shots for the Minutemen in the losing effort to fall to 11-1-0 on the year.
Seniors
Nick Master (Broomall, Pa.),
Ryan Dmowski (East Lyme, Conn.), along with Wilson each posted a team-high three shots on goal on the evening for the River Hawks.
UMass Lowell was a perfect 2-for-2 on the penalty kill against the Minutemen.
With the win tonight, the River Hawks to a 5-3 advantage in the Kennedy Cup Challenge, which is the season series between the two schools in all sports.
The River Hawks return to action on Friday, January 11
th at Colgate. Game time from Class of 1965 Arena is 7:30 p.m. in Hamilton, N.Y.
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