LOWELL, Mass. -- The No. 10 ranked UMass Lowell Hockey team was defeated by No. 13 Providence College, 6-1 on Friday night in Hockey East play at the Tsongas Center in front of 4,638 fans.

UMass Lowell drops to 17-9-2 overall (11-5-2 HEA) with the loss, while the Friars improve to 17-9-5 overall (10-7-2 HEA) after the victory.

"Our opponent took it to us from minute number three to minute number 60," said UMass Lowell Head Coach Norm Bazin. "I liked our first three minutes of the game, that's about all I liked tonight. I thought our attention to detail was poor, our alertness was poor and our focus was poor. We have to be better all-around, including the coaches."

Sophomore forward Connor Sodergren (Tewksbury, Mass.) scored the lone goal of the game for UMass Lowell with his fifth of the season at 3:13 of the third period. Providence's Tyce Thompson capped off the scoring in the game 30 seconds later to make it a 6-1 final.

Providence opened the game scoring two goals in the first period by Kasper Bjorkqvist and Jake Duhaime, while adding another three goals in the middle stanza on another goal by Bjorkqvist, as well as tallies from Michael Callahan and Greg Printz.

Junior netminder Tyler Wall (Leamington, Ont.) stopped 28 shots in the losing effort, while Hayden Hawkey recorded 20 saves in his 17th win of the season for Providence. 

UMass Lowell was a perfect 3-for-3 on the penalty kill on the evening.

The River Hawks return to action in the series finale on Saturday, February 16th at Providence. Game time from Schneider Arena is 7 p.m. The game will be televised live on NBC Sports Boston.