The UMass Lowell River Hawks men’s ice hockey team secured a 3-1 win over No. 19 Massachusetts on Friday night at the Tsongas Center in Lowell. The victory brings the River Hawks’ record to 10-17-0 overall and 6-11-0 in Hockey East play, while Massachusetts drops to 16-11-0 overall and 9-8-0 in conference.
Sophomore Lee Parks scored what would be the game-winning goal in the second period. Senior Dillan Bentley and junior Jak Vaarwerk also contributed goals for UMass Lowell. Assists came from Luke Shipley, Mirko Buttazzoni, TJ Schweighardt, Nate Misskey, Libor Nemec, and Connor Eddy.
On defense, freshman David Adaszynski led with two blocked shots as six other players each recorded one block. Freshman goaltender Austin Elliott made 21 saves to help secure the win.
“Overall, we’re obviously pleased with the outcome,” said Head Coach Norm Bazin. “It’s been a while and I thought this was one of the more complete efforts, defensively, that we’ve had and we will need to bottle that up and try to duplicate it tomorrow.”
UMass Lowell began the game with strong offensive pressure against Massachusetts goaltender Michael Hrabal but could not capitalize on early power play opportunities. Both teams were scoreless after one period thanks in part to nine saves by Elliott.
In the second period, Bentley opened scoring for UMass Lowell with his twelfth goal of the season at 7:56 following assists from Buttazzoni and Shipley. Massachusetts responded at 11:27 to tie the game before Parks reclaimed the lead for UMass Lowell late in the period on a breakaway set up by Schweighardt.
The third period saw UMass Lowell limit Massachusetts to just four shots on goal while successfully killing two penalties. Vaarwerk sealed the result with an empty-net goal assisted by Nemec and Eddy with just over two minutes remaining.
UMass Lowell will face Massachusetts again Saturday night in Amherst at Mullins Center for game two of their home-and-home series.
