LOWELL, Mass. — No. 5 Massachusetts-Lowell held off No. 15 Notre Dame at Tsongas Arena on Saturday night behind a 35-save performance by Kevin Boyle and two third-period goals by Nick Master and Adam Chapie.
After a scoreless first period that saw little scoring opportunity from either team, play opened up in the second when Notre Dame’s Steven Fogarty went off for hitting after the whistle at 4:56. The River Hawks capitalized on their ensuing power play at 5:40 when Evan Campbell took a pass down low from C.J. Smith and drove to the net. Campbell shot a beautiful backhand over the shoulder of Notre Dame’s Cal Petersen and under the cross bar to give Lowell the 1-0 advantage.
The play was quickly reviewed to determine whether it was originally offsides when Lowell broke into the zone, but the call on the ice stood.
The lead was short lived for the River Hawks, however, as just a minute later at 6:40, good cycling down low by the Irish’s Connor Hurley and Dylan Malmquist allowed Thomas DiPauli to take a pass in the high slot. DiPauli fired a wrist shot and the puck skipped off of multiple bodies in front and found its way through Boyle to tie the game at one.
A pair of impressive glove saves by Petersen on Edwardh and Ryan McGrath kept the game tied at one heading into the third period.
Just 90 seconds into the third period, Boyle stoned Malmquist with a blocker save on a breakaway to keep the game tied.
Lowell coach Norm Bazin praised his senior netminder following the game.
“Kevin’s matured a lot over the time he’s been here,” said Bazin. “He’s seeing the puck well and he’s very calm. He’s playing some great hockey and has been rock solid – we’re happy to have him.”
At 5:35 of the third period, the Irish’s Andy Ryan went off for obstruction interference. The River Hawks took advantage of the ensuing power play when Chapie fed a pass to the middle for Master, who fired a wrist shot above the glove of Petersen to reclaim the lead for the River Hawks.
After the game, Master credited Chapie on setting him up for the eventual game-winning goal.
“It was good work by our guys to move the puck out to the slot, said Master. “Adam made a good pass to me and I was lucky to get a good stick on it.”
Lowell did not make it easy on themselves however, as the River Hawks took five penalties in the third period after regaining the lead, including a 10-minute misconduct to Smith. The River Hawks penalty kill, led by captain A.J. White, was able to preserve the lead and kill off all six of the man-advantages for the Irish.
Bazin talked his team’s penalty kill and his captain after the game.
“Tonight was a playoff-style game,” Bazin said. “Fortunately for us, we were able to kill a couple late penalties to come out with the two points. A.J. is a poster child for college hockey. He acted like a captain tonight and his work on the penalty kill in the third period was an inspiration to our bench. That’s why he is wearing a ‘C.'”
Boyle warded off a flurry of shots late on a six-on-four advantage for the Irish, capped off by Chapie notching an empty-net goal with four seconds remaining to seal the win for Lowell.
Notre Dame coach Jeff Jackson acknowledged that his team needs to improve on their power play, but that there were also some positives to take out of the loss.
“All the credit in the world to their goaltender, he played really well,” said Jackson. “Failure to capitalize on special teams really hurt us, but I thought our guys did a good job holding their own tonight against one of the best teams in the country. We still have a lot to work on. “
