LOWELL, Mass. -- Junior forward Connor Sodergren (Tewksbury, Mass.) registered two goals and senior goalie Tyler Wall (Leamington, Ont.) amassed 23 saves in his ninth career shutout to pace the No. 15 UMass Lowell Hockey team to a 4-0 victory against Rensselaer in the Turkey Leg Classic opening game on Friday night at the Tsongas Center. 

UMass Lowell improves to 8-3-4 overall on the season, while the Engineers drop to 5-7-1 overall.

"I thought it was a good hockey game, I thought Tyler Wall made some key saves at the right time," said UMass Lowell Head Coach Norm Bazin. "It was a nice team shutout at the end, overall I liked the energy and I really liked the way we started the game. I liked the Sodergren, Levesque and Lee line, I thought they really came to life tonight, which was nice to see."

Sodergren scored both of his goals in the third period at 1:57 and 14:30, which included a point blank wrister on his first tally of the night. He also finished with a team-best 11 face-off victories. 

Freshman Andre Lee (Karlstad, Sweden) and junior forward Charlie Levesque (Russell, Ont.) each finished the game with two assists in the victory, while senior forward Colin O'Neill (Odenton, Md.) posted a team-high four shots on goal.

Sophomore defenseman Jon McDonald (Livonia, Mich.) extended the UMass Lowell lead to 2-0 with a blast from the point on the power play less than two minutes after Kaiser's goal.

Freshman forward Zach Kaiser (Orangeville, Ont.) opened the scoring in the game just 3:51 in with a wrister from the right face-off circle for his fourth goal of the season. 

The River Hawks went a perfect 5-for-5 on the penalty kill. UMass Lowell outshot RPI, 25-23 in the game, which included an 11-5 advantage in the opening stanza. 

RPI's Linden Marshall totaled 21 saves in the losing effort for the Engineers.

The River Hawks return to action on Saturday, November 30th against Big Ten foe Penn State in the Turkey Leg Classic finale. Game time from the Tsongas Center is 6 p.m. The game will be streamed nationally and internationally via CBS All-Access.
 
To purchase season tickets, individual tickets or mini plans, visit www.TsongasCenter.com. To save with a group of 10 or more, contact Jonathan Healy at Jonathan_Healy@uml.edu or by phone at (978) 934-6280.

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