Despite outshooting Colorado College 55-18, the No. 9 Umass-Lowell River Hawks found themselves in a third period dog fight on Friday night at Tsongas Arena against a Colorado College team hungry for its first win of the season.
Right out of the gate, the River Hawks overwhelmed the Colorado College defensemen with incredible pressure and constant cycling of the puck behind the Tigers net. However, even with the puck in the Colorado College end for most of the first period, it was the Tigers who struck first. At 4:29, forward Cody Bradley intercepted a breakout pass from behind the Lowell net and dished it to his brother, Trey Bradley, who fed a pass into the slot for Trevor Gooch to fire home a wrist shot blocker side for the early 1-0 Tigers lead.
With 12 minutes left in the first, Colorado College’s Sam Rothstein went to the box for hooking, and the River Hawks capitalized on the ensuing power play. At 8:20, Joe Gambardella slapped home the rebound of a Ryan Dmowski shot from the point just 19 seconds into the man advantage. At the first intermission, the game was tied up at one with Lowell outshooting the Tigers 17-8.
The River Hawks power play struck again at 7:33 of the second period after Colorado College’s Cole McCaskill was sent off for interference. Tyler Mueller fired a shot from the point that was blocked in front by teammate Joe Gambardella, but the puck landed right on the tape of Nick Master, who flipped it over the pad of Jacob Nehama to give the River Hawks their first lead of the night at 2-1.
Lowell goaltender Kevin Boyle preserved the one-goal lead just before intermission when he thwarted Trevor Gooch from notching his second goal of the game with a sprawling left pad save on a two-on-one.
“I thought Kevin played his best game of the year tonight,” said River Hawks coach Norm Bazin. “All of his saves were huge for us tonight in order to get a win against a good team.”
Bazin was also pleased with his team’s ability to hold the Tigers to just 18 shots on net.
“The shot count can be a little deceiving, but I thought our team defense as a whole did a fair job of blocking shots tonight. We’ll have to look at the film to see where we can improve.”
At 7:50 of the third period, Cody Bradley tied the game on a breakaway after he intercepted a pass in the neutral zone and broke in for a wrist shot blocker side of Kevin Boyle to tie the game at two.
The River Hawks added furious pressure throughout the rest of the third period, including two power-play opportunities, Nehama (55 saves) stood tall for Colorado College.
At 17:16, Ryan McGrath finally broke the tie with a wrist shot from the point glove side, giving the River Hawks the lead with just under three minutes remaining.
Colorado College pulled its goaltender in the final minutes, but could not muster up the tying goal, and the River Hawks held on for the 3-2 win.
Despite the loss, Colorado College coach Mike Haviland was impressed with the play of his goaltender.
“It was a tough way to lose a hockey game, but I thought Jake played great tonight. It looked like he just didn’t see the puck on that last goal; their guys set a good screen on him. We have to do a better job of getting in those shooting lanes and blocking shots like that.”
