Durham, New Hampshire – The Massachusetts Lowell School ice hockey team (8-23-4 Hockey East, 4-17-3 Hockey East) will compete Saturday against No. 18 New Hampshire (19-14-1 Hockey East, 12-1 Hockey East) (11 draws, 1 loss) and lost 4-0. The night of the final regular season game at the Whitmore Center.
Defensively, eight different Massachusetts Lowell skaters recorded at least one blocked shot as juniors. Isaac Jonsson (Engelholm, Sweden) 2nd year student mark cooper (Cambridge, Ontario) Each team was led by three people.junior owen cole (Danville, Ont.) recorded two, and five players each recorded one.junior luke pavicic (Clarence Center, NY) got the nod between the pipes for the River Hawks, making 32 saves.
“It's a difficult weekend for us,'' said the head coach. Noam Bazin. “Obviously it wasn't the result we were looking for going into the playoffs, but that's what we're facing.”
New Hampshire won the race to the scoreboard in the first period, scoring on Steven Sardarian's power-play goal at 10:37. The River Hawks then had a power play opportunity at 17:09, but were unable to capitalize on their man advantage. The rest of the game was a back-and-forth battle, and the game went into the first intermission at 1-0.
After the Wildcats added two points at 0:55 and 1:35 of the second period, the River Hawks responded by applying pressure on offense and gathering scoring chances from their seniors. Jake Stella (Sweden, Karlstad) and Junior matt clasa (South Setauket, N.Y.), had 15 total shots on goal. Pavicic blanked New Hampshire the rest of the way with 13 saves, but the penalty kill unit killed two Wildcats power play opportunities to keep the score even. Both teams headed to the locker room with the score 3-0.
The third period started out similar to the second, with New Hampshire quickly scoring on a power play that took over from the end of the second period. The River Hawks again retaliated with offensive pressure, with 18 shot attempts to New Hampshire's 15. dylan bentley At 7:25, he had a great chance to score, taking a wrister from the left faceoff circle, but it hit the right pipe and bounced wide. The River Hawks had seven shots for the rest of the game, but they were ineffective, and the game ended with a score of 4-0.
The River Hawks advance to the first round of the Hockey East Tournament and will once again face New Hampshire. The game will be played again at the Whitmore Center on Wednesday, March 13th, with a time to be announced.
