LOWELL, Mass. — Zach Hyman’s second-period hat trick powered Michigan past Massachusetts-Lowell en route to a decisive 8-4 win.
Hyman added two assists, and together with linemates Dylan Larkin and Alex Kile, totaled 12 points on the night. In their three previous games, the unit had scored only a single goal.
The Wolverines lost two of those three games, and then traveled East to face a Lowell team that had posted a 2-0-1 record in three games against nationally-ranked foes. However, home ice and a No. 7 national ranking meant little. Michigan seized an early 2-0 lead and though Lowell rallied several times to close the gap to a single goal, the visitors put the game away late in the second period and for good early in the third.
“The puck was going in for us, but we’re not going to win a lot of games giving up four goals,” cautioned Michigan coach Red Berenson. “We earned our breaks, but we got some puck luck that we haven’t seen this year.”
Some of that puck luck came as a result of the pressure the Wolverines exerted with an aggressive forecheck.
“Our forecheck is a five-man forecheck,” said Hyman. “Our ‘D’ jump into the play a lot. We try to keep the puck in. They did a great job on the forecheck.”
The loss was Lowell’s first of the year.
Expected to be rebuilding a bit after major losses in the offseason, the River Hawks had been one of college hockey’s best early surprises, but though they rallied time and again, there was no sugarcoating the loss.
“We got what we deserved tonight,” said UML coach Norm Bazin. “We’re going to get an awful lot of learning lessons from this game. From the onset, our sticks weren’t strong enough, we weren’t winning footraces and the faceoffs were very lopsided in their favor.
“We’ve proven we can play with energy and edge, but we didn’t have it today. That was a real team loss.”
Michigan took charge midway through the first period, needing only 10 seconds into its first power play to seize the lead. Larkin shot from the right point, and the rebound caromed to Kile on the far post where he put it into the open net.
Less than two minutes later, the Wolverines added another on a Kile goal right off the faceoff. With the shots at 10-1, Michigan, and the score 2-0, it looked like a long night ahead for the River Hawks.
Instead, they began a series of rallies that fell a goal short.
At the 15-minute mark, Lowell got on the board when Adam Chapie one-timed a feed from John Edwardh. As a result, the period ended with them trailing by only one goal despite a 15-6 shot disparity.
Little more than two minutes into the second, Michigan regained the two-goal lead on a three-on-two rush. Hyman scored his first goal of the year on a pass in front from Kile.
The River Hawks appeared to be teetering on the precipice, but they needed only 31 seconds to get back to within one as A.J. White took a pass from behind the net and roofed the puck glove side.
Hyman struck again at 5:11, however, collaborating with Kile and quieting the crowd. Seven minutes later, though, Lowell once again got back to within one on a Tyler Mueller shot from the left point that Terrence Wallin deflected in.
That would be as close as Lowell would get.
The Wolverines countered with two more goals that period, both on goals that Lowell goalie Kevin Boyle, a big part of its success so far this season, would have liked back.
Hyman shot from high in the zone, Boyle couldn’t control it, and with the puck fluttering through the air behind Boyle and likely to have gone in anyway, Larkin swatted it in. Hyman completed his hat trick at 18:08, rifling the puck in from the left faceoff circle, beating Boyle short side. The goal made it 6-3 and chased Boyle to the bench.
Dylan Zink gave Lowell a brief flicker of life 2:46 into the third with his first collegiate goal, moving in from the left point and ripping a shot through a screen, but freshmen Dexter Dancs and Zach Werenski responded with goals, both their first, to pound the final nails in Lowell’s coffin.
On Saturday, Lowell hosts Michigan State while Michigan travels to Boston University.
