Box Score LOWELL, Mass. – Led by a two-goal game from graduate student
Jay Ahearn (Staten Island, N.Y.) and a 17-save shutout from freshman
Austin Elliott (Strathmore, Alberta), the UMass Lowell ice hockey team (1-0-0, 1-0-0 Hockey East) earned a 4-0 win against Merrimack in front of a sold-out Tsongas Center Friday night in the season opener.
Joining Ahearn in the goal-scoring department was freshman
Tnias Mathurin (Ajax, Ontario) and sophomore
Mirko Buttazzoni (Langley, B.C.). Freshman
Dalyn Wakely (Port Hope, Ontario) added two assists in his UMass Lowell debut, while senior
TJ Schweighardt (Manahawkin, N.J.), freshman
Luke Shipley (Powell River, B.C.), senior
Dillan Bentley (Peoria, Ill.) and sophomore
Lee Parks (Ottawa, Ontario) all collected one helper apiece. Elliott found success between the pipes for the River Hawks with the 17 save shutout in his first collegiate game.
"It's great to play an official game and get to hit somebody other than each other after a couple weeks," said Head Coach
Norm Bazin. "It was a great result. I thought the crowd was outstanding. It gave us a lift and we were able to score first. All good things. We got a couple contributions on the special teams, so it was nice."
The River Hawks started hot out of the gates, with scoring chances from
Mirko Buttazzoni and Ahearn. However,
Mirko Buttazzoni eventually cashed in at the 3:43 mark of the first, one-timing a deflected shot by Bentley and firing it past the Merrimack goaltender, Max Lundgren to give the River Hawks the lead and score the first goal of the season. The squad continued to apply pressure on Lundgren throughout the remainder of the period, while playing solid defense to compliment Elliot's impressive goaltending and limiting the Warriors' chances. With a 10-6 shots lead, both teams entered the locker room with the score at 1-0.
The second period saw even more of a push from the River Hawks offensively, as they finished the period winning 17 of 22 faceoffs, creating a handful of opportunities, before scoring two goals in under three minutes. It started on a Merrimack power play when Mathurin found the back of the net with a shorthanded goal assisted by Wakely on the two-on-one at the 14:31 mark. Ahearn followed up Mathurin's first collegiate goal with his first goal as a River Hawk at 17:08, taking a pass from Parks in front of the net and sending it above the shoulder of Lundgren for the 3-0 lead.
UMass Lowell kept the control throughout the third, continuing the win the faceoff battle and scoring their first power play goal of the year. The team lit the lamp on the man advantage just 3:39 into the period when Ahearn picked up his second goal of the night on a rebound of a Schweighardt shot. The play started when
Diego Buttazzoni (Langley, B.C.) found Wakely across the offensive zone, who fed the puck to Schweighardt at the blue line. Elliott continued to blank the Warriors with four more saves throughout the remainder of the game, helping lift the River Hawks to the 4-0 victory.
The team will now travel to Merrimack next Friday, October 10 for another matchup with the Warriors at 7:00 p.m.
