A pair of shorthanded goals in the second period helped power No. 5 UMass Lowell to a 5-2 win over the No. 12/13 St. Lawrence University men’s hockey team at the Tsongas Center in Lowell, Mass. on Friday night.
The Saints were once again plagued by penalties, taking eight for 16 minutes against the River Hawks, while Lowell was also whistled for eight infractions.
“We took too many penalties that got us out of sorts and we never really got our bearings,” head coach Mark Morris said in a postgame press conference. “We can be a lot sharper than that, we’re a better team than we showed and credit goes to them. I was really impressed with Lowell. They were quick, strong, assertive and that’s what we aspire to be when we mature.”
After Lowell took a 2-0 lead on goals by Ryan Dmowski and Tyler Mueller in the first period, rookie forward Carson Gicewicz and junior defensemen Matt Purmal scored 43 seconds apart late in the frame to tie the score heading into the first intermission.
First-year Ben Finkelstein started the play that led to the first St. Lawrence goal with a great play at the blue line to keep the puck in the offensive zone. He passed to Jacob Pritchard who put a shot on net that was saved by Lowell’s Tyler Wall, but Gicewicz was waiting to backhand the rebound for his second of the season.
Less than a minute later, Michael Laidley fed Mike Marnell on the right wing as he cut through the neutral zone. The South Huntington, N.Y. native led a two-on-two with Purmal who was cutting to the far post and redirected a pass high above Wall’s right shoulder for his first of the season.
But the first of Lowell’s two shorthanded goals came just 2:20 into the middle frame and proved to be the game winner, as John Edwardh forced a turnover and got a shot off for the goal despite heavy pressure from the Saints’ Joe Sullivan.
The second shorthanded goal at 13:34 was scored by Joe Gambardella for the River Hawks, as he swiped at the puck from the bottom of the circle in a race with senior defensemen Gavin Bayreuther and bested Hayton high on the glove side.
The River Hawks fifth goal early in the third period, scored by Gage Hough, sent Hayton to the bench, as he was replaced by sophomore Arthur Brey who logged his first minutes of the season for the Saints. Brey made 13 saves in just over 17 minutes, while Hayton finished with 20 saves in the loss.
Lowell rookie netminder Tyler Wall made 11 saves in the win, his third of the year as the River Hawks outshot St. Lawrence 38-13 on the night.
St. Lawrence will look for the weekend split Saturday night against Providence College at Schneider Arena in Providence, R.I.
