ORONO, Maine – The No. 7 UMass Lowell ice hockey team (16-16-4, 8-13-3 Hockey East) dropped a 7-1 decision against No. 2 Maine Saturday evening in the Hockey East Quarterfinal Round at Alfond Arena in Orono, Maine.

Graduate student Nick Anderson (Orono, Minn.) scored the River Hawks goal, with assists from juniors Dillan Bentley (Peoria, Ill.) and Jack Collins (Canton, N.Y.). 10 different skaters had at least one blocked shot on the night, with graduate student Ben Meehan (Walpole, Mass.) leading the way with four. Junior TJ Schweighardt (Manahawkin, N.J.) and senior Owen Cole (Dunnville, Ontario) each had three, freshman Libor Nemec (Bratislava, Slovakia) tallied two and six players each blocked one. Graduate student Henry Welsch (Lakeville, Minn.) got the nod between the pipes, making 35 saves.

It was a hard-fought first period for the River Hawks, playing fast and collecting quality scoring chances. One of the first came when the team went on the first power play of the game at the 8:44 mark, and Dillan Bentley set a wrister on net fro the slot, but it was just saved. Another came later in the period at the 18:43 mark, when Scout Truman also fired one from the same spot, but it just caught a piece of the goaltender. Welsch stood tall on the other end, as his 10 saves and the tight play from the defensive unit kept the Black Bears scoreless to send it to the first intermission with no score. Maine was called for a five-minute major and misconduct with 27 seconds left, giving the River Hawks a man advantage for the first 4:33 of the second period.

Early in the second period, Welsch made an acrobatic glove save to halt a Maine scoring opportunity, stretching his glove out to snag the puck at the goal line.  Despite three goals from Maine throughout the remainder of the second, one being on the power play, UMass Lowell remained aggressive offensively and tallied 11 shots on goal, with scoring chances from Owen Cole, Matt Crasa, and more.

Maine scored at the beginning of the third, but the River Hawks responded, firing up the offense and getting on the board under seven minutes later with Anderson's second of the year. It started when Collins got a shot off the bounced the board to the stick of Bentley, who found Anderson behind him as the goaltender was out of position, and Anderson buried it for the goal.  The Black Bears went on to score three more and the game concluded with a 7-1 score.