BURLINGTON, Vt. – Four different skaters collected multi-point games, as the UMass Lowell ice hockey team (12-18-0, 8-12-0 Hockey East) completed the series sweep at Vermont (12-17-0, 7-12-0 Hockey East) with a 5-2 victory at Gutterson Fieldhouse Saturday evening.

Sophomore Chris Delaney (Hopkinton, Mass.) led the squad with three points on three assists, while freshman Nate Misskey (Melfort, SK) scored two goals in the victory. Freshman Dalyn Wakely (Port Hope, Ontario) scored a goal with an assist, while freshman Josh Mori (Richmond, B.C.) had two helpers to join the multi-point club. Graduate student Jay Ahearn (Staten Island, N.Y.) and freshman Diego Buttazzoni (Langley, B.C.) each added one goal, while senior TJ Schweighardt (Manahawkin, N.J.) and sophomore Mirko Buttazzoni (Langley, B.C.) each had an assist to finish with a point apiece.

The team killed off six penalties and blocked a total of 18 shots. Junior Sean Kilcullen (Kensington, Md.) led the team with four blocked shots, while Misskey and junior Jak Vaarwerk (Clarence, N.Y.) were just behind him with three each. Two different skaters tallied two blocked shots each and four skaters had one. Senior Samuel Richard (Sainte-Catherine, Quebec) got the nod between the pipes for the River Hawks, getting his second consecutive win with 24 saves.

"I am proud of the guys' effort tonight," said Head Coach Norm Bazin. "The game was closer than the score indicated and was full of excitement. We scored a shorthanded goal, a power play goal and kept our focus through a 20 min delay. Mentally, having to kill six penalties was taxing. Sweeps are tough in Hockey East, so we'll enjoy this for today, then go back to work on Monday."

It was an eventful first period, as the River Hawks fought back from an early deficit. Vermont opened the scoring at the 5:06 mark and UMass Lowell had a goal called back at the 8:25 mark, but quickly tied it back up just two minutes later when Misskey fired one home from the high slot after crisp passing from Delaney and Wakely. It did not take long for Ahearn to give the squad the lead, as he finished his 11^th of the year at 13:09. Mirko Buttazzoni got the play started when he collected the puck from a Vermont defenseman that lost his stick and found Ahearn in front for the goal. Richard did his job on the other end, making 12 first period saves to help bring the 2-1 lead to the locker room.

The squad extended their lead in the second period, as Diego Buttazzoni scored his fifth of the year and second of the weekend while on a 5-on-3 man advantage at the 7:27 mark. Delaney and Schweighardt got him the puck, and he scored on his third effort, collecting his own blocked shot twice before lighting the lamp to make it 3-1. Richard and the defensive unit once again made key stops throughout the period, blanking the Catamounts to bring it to the third period with a two-goal lead.  

UMass Lowell rode the momentum into the third and immediately made it 4-1 just over a minute in, when Delaney dished it to Wakely on a 2-on-1 and Wakely buried it top shelf for his sixth of the year. The majority of the remainder of the period was a battle, and after the River Hawks killed a penalty following a Vermont goal at 13:15, Misskey secured the victory and his second goal of the night on an empty netter from the defensive zone.

The River Hawks will now move on to host Northeastern for a two-game home series next Friday and Saturday, February 20 and 21 at the Tsongas Center. Game one will kick off at 7:15 p.m., while Saturday's game two is set for a 6:05 p.m. puck drop.