NORTH ANDOVER, Mass. – The UMass Lowell ice hockey team (12-21-0, 8-15-0 Hockey East) fell short, 5-3, at Merrimack (17-15-2, 10-12-2 Hockey East) on Thursday evening at Lawler Arena.

Freshman Dalyn Wakely (Port Hope, Ontario), sophomore Lee Parks (Ottawa, Ontario) and graduate student Jay Ahearn (Staten Island, N.Y.) scored the goals for the River Hawks, while senior Connor Eddy (Victoria, B.C.), senior TJ Schweighardt (Manahawkin, N.J.), sophomore Chris Delaney (Hopkinton, Mass.), junior Sean Kilcullen (Kensington, Md.), sophomore Libor Nemec (Bratislava, Slovakia) and junior Jak Vaarwerk (Clarence, N.Y.) all collected assists.

Defensively, nine different skaters finished with one blocked shot apiece.  Freshman Austin Elliott (Strathmore, Alberta) got the nod between the pipes for the River Hawks, making 26 saves.

"Tonight was frustrating," said Head Coach Norm Bazin. "We started well and had good momentum going into the second. We made a few errors that ended up costing us in the first and third periods but we need to keep striving towards having a more complete effort for all three periods. We will regroup and hope to improve for our game Saturday."

The River Hawks generated plenty of offense in the first period, outshooting Merrimack 13-7. Three of those shots came on a power play at 5:26 but the Warriors kept Lowell off the board until the 10:13 mark. Eddy carried the puck into the offensive zone and zipped to the corner before sending a backhand pass to Wakely in front, who buried his seventh goal of the year. Merrimack answered at 19:11 to even the score before taking a penalty with five seconds left, giving the River Hawks a power play heading into the first intermission with the game tied at 1-1.

The River Hawks capitalized on the power play early in the second to jump back in front. Schweighardt kept the puck in the offensive zone and fed Delaney, who found Nemec for a shot that ricocheted off the goaltender to Parks. Parks cleaned up the rebound at 1:51 to give Lowell the lead. Merrimack answered with three goals at 8:06, 9:16 and 11:14 to take a 4-2 lead into the third.

The third period was a battle, as both teams went back and forth until the River Hawks cut the deficit to one on Ahearn's 12^th of the year at 14:13. The goal came on a power play after Merrimack was called for a five minute major and it all started when Kilcullen collected a rebound from a Vaarwerk shot and found Ahearn in front of the net, who collected his own rebound for the goal. Merrimack responded with an empty netter at 19:05 to conclude the game with a 5-3 score.  

Next, the River Hawks host Boston University in the regular season finale on Saturday, March 7 at the Tsongas Center and will celebrate the seniors prior to the 6:05 p.m. puck drop.