LOWELL, Mass. – The No. 16/15 UMass Lowell ice hockey team's (15-13-4, 8-11-3 Hockey East) comeback effort fell just short against No. 17/14 Massachusetts (18-12-4, 9-9-4 Hockey East), dropping a 5-3 decision Saturday night at the Tsongas Center.

Freshman Lee Parks (Ottawa, Ontario), freshman Libor Nemec (Bratislava, Slovakia) and senior Owen Cole (Dunnville, Ontario) scored the goals for the River Hawks, while graduate student Jack Robilotti (New York, N.Y.), senior Isac Jonsson (Ängelholm, Sweden), freshman Chris Delaney (Hopkinton, Mass.), junior Connor Eddy (Victoria, B.C.), graduate student Ben Meehan (Walpole, Mass.) and graduate student Nick Anderson (Orono, Minn.) all tallied one assist apiece. Junior Beni Halasz (Budapest, Hungary) got the nod between the pipes, making 22 saves.

"I don't think fans were cheated tonight," said Head Coach Norm Bazin. "I thought it was a good hockey game. Obviously, it wasn't our game plan to get down two in the first. I thought we were the better team in the third, but it matters whoever scores last and as much as this game is rewarding sometimes, sometimes it's really difficult and it was one of those nights. I was proud of our push in the third, we showed some heart, but it wasn't enough."

The River Hawks won the shots on goal battle in the first period, 12-5, but it was the Minutemen that got on the board with two goals at the 1:07 and 4:34 marks. UMass Lowell responded with a lot of pressure in the offensive zone but could not cash in as the game went to the second period with a 2-0 score.

After a Massachusetts slashing penalty just under nine minutes into the second, the squad got one back on the power play, as Parks found the back of the net, redirecting an Anderson puck on net. Delaney got the play started, feeding Anderson near the blue line to help cut the deficit to one. Halasz and the defensive unit held the Minutemen for the remainder of the period, and it concluded with the score at 2-1.

Momentum was gained in the third period, as UMass Lowell responded to an early Massachusetts goal in a big way, scoring two goals in three minutes to tie it up at three. Massachusetts scored at the 4:19 mark, and exactly two minutes later, Nemec potted his fifth of the year to make it a one-goal game yet again, before Cole came up with a clutch equalizer just 2:39 later. The squad continued to keep the offense coming, getting pucks to the cage and making the Massachusetts goaltender work, finishing the period with 13 shots on goal compared to the Minutemen's eight, but a Massachusetts goal and empty netter was the difference, and the game concluded with a 5-3 score.

The River Hawks will now close out the regular season with a home-and-home series next weekend against New Hampshire on Friday and Saturday, March 7 and 8. Game one is set for 7:15 p.m., while Saturday's regular season finale will have a 7:00 p.m. puck drop.