An early first period goal from No. 19 UMass Lowell was all the visitors needed on Saturday night, as the River Hawks skated to a 5-0 win over the St. Lawrence men’s hockey team in Appleton Arena.
It is the first time the Saints, now 0-6, have been shut out since a 0-0 tie against Quinnipiac in Belfast, Northern Ireland on November 25, 2016. With the win, UMass Lowell improved to 3-3-0 on the year.
St. Lawrence outshot the River Hawks 27-17 in the game, including an 11-3 advantage in the third period, but couldn’t get one behind netminder Chris Hernberg. Jacob Pritchard and Jake Stevens both finished with four shots on goal to lead the Saints.
Jake Kamrass led the River Hawks with two goals, including the first and eventual game winner just one minute and 43 seconds into the opening period. He redirected a feed from Ryan Lohin at the edge of the crease behind the Saints’ Arthur Brey for the only goal of the period.
It looked as though Stevens had tied the game with just under four minutes to play in the first period, as his slapshot from the point skipped over Hernber’s shoulder, hit the crossbar and came down. But after review, the call on the ice stood as no goal and the Saints went into the first intermission down 1-0.
UMass Lowell scored four goals in the middle frame to push to the 5-0 margin.
Chris Forney notched a power-play goal at the 3:33 and Ryan Collins followed with an even-strength tally that made it 3-0 in favor of UMass Lowell and prompted a goaltending change for the Saints. Brey, who was replaced by Daniel Mannella, finished with eight saves in 29:31.
Just over three minutes later, the River Hawks caused a turnover at the blue line and moved into the Saints zone on an odd-man rush, with Kenny Hausinger beating Mannella five-hole for the fourth goal.
The fifth came from Kamrass on the power play at 16:44 of the middle frame with Connor Wilson and Tyler Mueller assisting.
St. Lawrence had a number of chances down the stretch in the third period, including a shot from Ryan Lough that beat Hernberg over his left shoulder by rang the crossbar and one from Ben Finkelstein that was headed far post but was gloved by the River Hawks’ goaltender.
Hernberg finished with 27 saves in the win for UMass Lowell, while Mannella made four saves in just over 30 minutes of action for St. Lawrence.
During the first intermission of Saturday’s game, the Saints honored hockey alumni Brian McFarlane ’55, the program’s all-time leader scorer and famed Hockey Night in Canada broadcaster, and Bill Torrey ’57, a Stanley Cup Champion NHL executive that helped the New York Islanders to four consecutive cups in the early 80’s, as the inaugural Legends of Appleton. Both Brian and Bill donned their new, red Legends of Appleton sport coats for the on-ice ceremony.
