LOWELL, Mass – Massachusetts coach Greg Carvel was pretty frank when describing his team’s loss to sister-school rival UMass Lowell on Saturday, a game where at times the Minutemen controlled the flow of play for stretches but still came out on the wrong end of an 8-3 score at Tsongas Center.
“A very ugly score but maybe not as ugly a game as the score,” said Carvel. “We did a good job of hurting ourselves tonight. They’re more mature than we are, we’re a young team. I’m not sure I’m going to mark this one up as growing pain.
“But the big boys taught the little boys how to play hockey tonight.”
An apt description of a game where UMass fell behind, 2-0, early but clawed back with goals by Niko Hildenbrand late in the first and a power play goal from Philip Lagunov at the 8:09 mark of the second.
From that point, the Minutemen dominated their sister school in the middle frame. But an icing with less than 90 seconds remaining in the frame changed the complexion.
Lowell won that draw but didn’t score. Instead, the River Hawks forced three straight draws in the offensive zone and, on the third, a red-hot Ryan Dmowski fired a shot through a screen that by UMass goalie Ryan Wischow (14 saves) and gave Lowell a lead it wouldn’t relinquish.
That final draw, taken by Charlie Levesque who jumped between wing and center for much of the game, exemplified something that pleased Lowell coach Norm Bazin: his team’s ability to fill holes throughout the lineup for much of the night.
“We were missing a couple of centermen tonight, so we went with a number of guys,” said Bazin. “The depth was a big part of the game tonight. That’s why I was so proud of the guys. A lot of guys were playing out of position. I thought we responded well to some adverse situations.”
Still in a tight game and killing a penalty to start the third, the River Hawks were able to successfully target and hit the UMass jugular.
Ryan Lohin potted a shorthanded goal to give Lowell its two-goal cushion. The tally, coning just 1:34 into the third stood up as the game-winner and was part of a four-point night for the sophomore talent.
“It was a good job by the ‘D’ and [Nick] Marin to tie the guys who and get the puck loose,” said Lohin describing his goal. “I just saw an opportunity to take [the puck] and take a shot and fortunately it was able to go in.”
Lohin’s goal was the first of five for the River Hawks in the final period, though the final two were fired 4-on-6 shorthanded into an empty net. Lohin factored in all three of the shorthanded tallies.
“[Lohin] has been a first-shift penalty killer since he arrived as a freshman,” said Bazin. “That’s really out of the ordinary in college hockey. It’s a tough role to play. He’s a very headsy hockey player.”
By the end of the night, Lowell had netted eight goals on 22 shots, a night after scoring six goals against Vermont on just 24 shots. A good shooting percentage, certainly, but any coach knows those numbers are difficult to sustain, thus teaching points will still exist.
“I didn’t think we necessarily played a complete game, but there are going to be times you have to gut through some stuff,” said Bazin. “And that’s what it was, these guys gutted through some adverse situations. At the end you get the results, learn a few things and move on to the following weekend.”
