LOWELL, Mass. -- The No. 14 ranked UMass Lowell Hockey team earned a 4-3 victory at Merrimack College in Hockey East play on Saturday night at Lawler Arena.

The River Hawks improve to 15-7-5 overall (9-4-4 HEA) with the victory, while Merrimack drops to 7-19-3 overall (5-11-3 HEA) after the loss. UMass Lowell earned four road points in Hockey East over the weekend to move into sole possession of second place in the Hockey East standings.

"I thought we were fortunate to get two points tonight, I thought we were average to start the game, a little sluggish," said UMass Lowell Head Coach Norm Bazin. "It got better in the second, obviously the second was our best period and we just hung on in the third, it wasn't our best effort."

UMass Lowell scored all four of its goals in the second period, starting with Matt Brown's (Wood Ridge, N.J.) sixth of the season on the power play to knot the game at 1-1 just 1:18 into the second. Brown posted a team-high five shots on goal for the River Hawks in the victory. Connor Sodergren (Tewskbury, Mass.) extended the River Hawks' lead to 2-1 with his eighth tally of the year midway through the second. Freshman forward Blake Wells (Blackie, Alta.) tapped in a rebound for his first collegiate tally to make it 3-1 River Hawks. Rookie blueliner Marek Korencik (Zilina, Slovakia) added his second goal in as many games with a wrister from the right face-off circle to make it a 4-1 contest in favor of UMass Lowell.

Merrimack added two goals in the third period at 9:27 by Liam Walsh and 12:24 by Chase Gresock via the power play. Gresock finished the night with a game-high seven shots on goal.

The Warriors struck first in the game with 4:05 to go in the opening frame on a goal by Tyler Irvine's 12th goal of the season.

Senior goalie Tyler Wall (Leamington, Ont.) amassed 24 saves in his 15th win of the season, while Merrimack's Jere Huhtamaa also recorded 24 stops in the losing effort. Wall recorded 10 first-period saves and posted 14 in the final two stanzas.

Sophomore forward Lucas Condotta (Georgetown, Ont.) finished the night with two assists. 

UMass Lowell returns to action on Friday, February 14th against Northeastern. Game time from the Tsongas Center is 7:15 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 Jim Hadayia (James_Hadayia@uml.edu) 978-934-5739.

-