The University of New Hampshire Wildcats and Mass.-Lowell River Hawks skated to a 2-2 tie at the Whittemore Center on Friday Night.
Mass.-Lowell goalie Carton Hutton had 39 saves on the night in the draw.
The No. 6 Wildcats scored first just 3:34 into the period. With traffic in front of the River Hawks net, UNH freshmen Paul Thompson knocked the puck past Hutton to make it a 1-0 game. Linemates Danny Dries and Phil DiSimone were credited with assists. The goal was controversial, and it was reviewed by referee Tim Benedetto.
The River Hawks had a chance to tie it when Ian Schaser took a shot that ended up hitting the right post.
At the start of the middle frame, UMass’s Jonathan Maniff skated up from the blue line and found himself alone in front of Brian Foster and scored to tie the game.
At 6:04, the River Hawks got the lead off an Ian Schaser goal from a shot he took at the right post after being set up by Chris Auger and Frank Stegnar.
Just 36 seconds later however, the Wildcats tied it back up when Jerry Pollastrone gathered a lose puck and passed it to linemate Peter LeBlanc. Flaishans skated alongside Leblanc all the way up the ice and fired the puck past Hutton.
New Hampshire had the chance to gain a lead on a shorthanded bid by Thomas Fortney, but Hutton made the stop and secured the tie.
River Hawk’s captain Ben Holmstrom had an opportunity to make it a 3-2 contest, but was shutdown by Foster.
The third period was scoreless. Foster stopped three River Hawks shots, while Hutton made 11 saves. New Hampshire had their best chance in the third when Bobby Butler was alone in front of the net, but his shot ended up wide of Hutton.
“A hard fought point for us,” said River Hawks’ head coach Blaise MacDonald. “A team that is ridiculously young as we are, we had to battle for every ounce of ice out there and we had everybody contributing. Carter Hutton gave us a chance to win that game and he played terrific.”
“I just told the team that if they learned anything between last Saturday night and tonight, if we’re not ready to play 60 minutes you can get beat in this league very easily,” said UNH coach Dick Umile.
