LOWELL, Mass. – The UMass Lowell ice hockey team (7-15-2, 3-9-1 Hockey East) fell to Providence (13-7-2, 6-4-2 Hockey East), 7-2, on Friday night in game one of a home-and-home series.
 
Freshman Jak Vaarwerk (Clarence, N.Y.) and senior Ben Meehan (Walpole, Mass.) lit the lamp for the River Hawks. Freshman Jaiden Moriello (Saugus, Mass.), sophomore Scout Truman (Lethbridge, Alberta), senior Jake Stella (Karlstad, Sweden) and junior Isac Jonsson (Ängelholm, Sweden) each had one helper, as well. Juniors Luke Pavicich (Clarence Center, N.Y.) and Edvard Nordlund (Nacka, Sweden) both saw action in net for the River Hawks, with Pavicich making 20 saves compared to Nordlund's two.
 
"Tonight was not memorable for the right reasons," said Head Coach Norm Bazin. "We didn't come out the way we wanted; the first period was definitely an Achilles heel. I thought we got a little better as the game went on, but it was too little, too late."
 
Early in the first, at 5:14, matching penalties were called, making it two minutes of 4-on-4 action, but neither team was able to capitalize. The River Hawks were able to fire 10 shots on goal, equaling Providence's total, but Providence found the back of the net four times throughout, to make it a 4-0 game entering the first intermission. The best chance for the River Hawks came late in the period, when Stella sent the puck towards the goal, ricocheting off the goalie and created a loose puck that both junior Owen Cole (Dunnville, Ontario) and freshman Girts Silkalns (Talsi, Latvia) chopped at but couldn't knock it past the goal line.
 
To begin the second, both teams battled back-and-forth, until Providence got on the board with two goals at the 4:59 and 5:29 marks. Silkalns started a great scoring opportunity for the River Hawks at 13:07, shooting on goal from the right side to give graduate student Alex Peterson (Collegeville, Pa.) a rebound chance that was just saved by Providence goalie, Philip Svedebäck. For the remainder of the period, the UMass Lowell defensive forces halted all Providence scoring opportunities, while getting the team on the board on the other end at 17:42. After Moriello and Truman traded passes, Moriello dished one to Vaarwerk at the blue line, who made a move around a defender and patiently waited for the right opportunity to strike, firing one into the back of the net. Pavicich made two saves to close out the second period, and both teams entered the locker room with the score at 6-1.
 
After a Friars goal 48 seconds into the third, the game saw a string of penalties towards the midpoint of the period. Providence was called for a five-minute major and game misconduct along with a River Hawk penalty to make it 4-on-4, followed by a separate Providence penalty just 41 seconds later. On the 4-on-3, the River Hawks wasted no time, as Meehan one-timed a Stella pass that whizzed by Svedebäck. Stella got it all started with a faceoff win that Jonsson collected and gave right back to Stella to continue the goal sequence. The River Hawks continued to pepper Svedebäck with seven more shots in the period, but to no avail and the game concluded with a 7-2 score.  
 
Next up, the River Hawks will travel to Providence tomorrow, January 27 for game two at 7:00 p.m.