Box Score NORTH ANDOVER, Mass. – The UMass Lowell ice hockey team (4-6-1, 1-5-1 Hockey East) earned a 1-1 tie against Merrimack College (4-5-1, 2-3-1 Hockey East) on Wednesday night at Lawler Arena. Despite a hard-fought 65-minute effort, the River Hawks fell short in the shootout, 1-0.
Sophomore Nick Rhéaume (Trois-Rivieres, Quebec) scored the lone goal of the game for the River Hawks, giving him three on the year. Graduate student
Nick Granowicz (Macomb, Mich.) had the helper on the goal, moving to a tie for the third-most points on the team with eight. Defensively, senior
Brehdan Engum (Burnsville, Minn.) led the way with five blocked shots, while senior
Henry Welsch (Lakeville, Minn.) got the nod in net, finishing with 31 saves.
"I thought it was a good hockey game. I thought we accomplished a few things that we were after," said Head Coach
Norm Bazin. "Scoring first for a change and not chasing the game, that was excellent. I thought the effort was there tonight, I thought the guys' energy was good throughout the game. Obviously, we don't want to give up a goal with three minutes to go. A little bit of a bad bounce here and they get a break, and they capitalize. Shootouts are very unpredictable, I thought the team deserved better tonight, but that's the Hockey East, it's a really tough league and Merrimack's got a good team."
The River Hawks came out firing to start the game, getting the first three shots on goal and winning the total shots-on-goal battle 13-6. Both teams battled back and forth for the first 10 minutes, but the River Hawks had their first great scoring opportunity at 8:22 when Rhéaume collected a freshman
Jak Vaarwerk (Clarence, N.Y.) rebound off the pad of Merrimack goalie Zachary Borgiel, and fired an immediate second shot that was also saved.
Just over halfway through the first, Welsch managed to halt some Merrimack offensive pressure with two saves on breakaways, before adding two more crucial saves toward the end of the period to help keep the game scoreless. A Warriors penalty at 19:26 gave UMass Lowell a power play with 34 seconds to go, but the game went into intermission with a 0-0 score.
The River Hawks continued to push the issue offensively to start the second, getting two clear shots on goal during the remainder of their power play and getting five of the first seven shots on goal. At 5:37, Welsch made yet another impressive save on a Merrimack 2-on-1, before making a game-saving stop on another 2-on-1 later in the period at 13:59. Merrimack's Ethan Bono controlled the puck on the 2-on-1 and sent a pass across to Mark Gallant, who attempted to score on the far side, but Welsch slid to his left to make the diving save. The teams traded off possessions until the River Hawks had a power play with just 1:58 left. They were unable to find the back of the net on four shots during the man advantage, and the game remained scoreless heading into the third.
Rhéaume led the River Hawks to a hot third period start, scoring just 23 seconds in. It started with Granowicz fighting for the puck on the boards behind the net, gaining control and dishing a pass to Rhéaume in front. He sent a hard shot that found its way past Borgiel, giving the River Hawks the 1-0 lead.
At 6:42, the UMass Lowell special teams did their job, successfully killing off a penalty while allowing just one shot on goal that was saved. Welsch continued to silence the Merrimack offense following the penalty kill, including two rapid-fire saves on a Merrimack 2-on-1 at the 11:19 mark. He also made a glove save on a Merrimack shorthanded opportunity, after the River Hawks were called for a penalty at 14:06. The Warriors tied it up on a Michael Citara goal at 16:11, immediately following their power play, and the third period ended with both teams knotted up at one.
The five-minute, 3-on-3 overtime period saw a lot of stout defense, as there were only three combined shots on goal. Welsch helped keep the game tied with two important saves, but neither team could end it, bringing it to a shootout and officially ending it in a tie. Citara scored the lone goal for Merrimack in the shootout, securing them the extra point in the Hockey East standings. The River Hawks earned one point in the standings, and now set their sights on game two.
The series will conclude at the Tsongas Center in Lowell on Saturday, November 18. Puck drop is scheduled for 6:05 p.m.
