LOWELL, Mass. – Confidence can be a quirky thing in sports, particularly in hockey.
When an offense loses its confidence, it can be a long road to earning it back.
From the first day of this season, UMass Lowell has been up and down and, at times, it was difficult to understand in that confidence that is so necessary had waned in the least.
The River Hawks answered that question, in spades, on Saturday.
Coming off a 3-0 shutout at the hands of St. Lawrence six days earlier, six different scorers found the back of the net for Lowell as the River Hawks cruised to a 6-0 victory over Vermont to opener the 2018 portion of this campaign.
Said the captain Tyler Mueller, playing with the confidence that Lowell showed on Friday is critical.
“Any time you start to lose confidence, it’s real tough,’ said Mueller. “Whether you win or not, you have to be able to reset, play with that confidence and have confidence within each other in the locker room.
“That’s a contagious thing, and it was good tonight.”
Chris Hernberg needed to stop just 21 pucks and less than a handful from the grade ‘A’ are to pick up his third shutout of the season. A major factor in that was the defense’s ability to quickly transition the puck from defense to offense and make it a game where Lowell put the Catamounts on their heels much of the time in the defensive end.
That was a good sign for coach Norm Bazin, who picked up his 200th career victory on Friday.
“We try to transition quickly whenever we can,” said Bazin. “I thought away from the puck, the whole ‘D’ corps led by Tyler, this was one of the better games for those guys. You could play all six on the penalty kill. We substituted all six on the power play.
“It’s nice when you can even out those minutes.”
Lowell started fast in the game and never let off the gas pedal. After Vermont held things tight early, goals by Niklas Folin, the first of his career, and Charlie Levesque just 78 seconds apart gave the River Hawks an early cushion. John Edwardh’s breakaway goal late in the first seemed like a back breaker for the Cats.
Connor Sodergren’s goal early in the first and Connor Wilson’s power play tally midway through the second chased started Stefanos Lekkas (seven saves) from the game. And while Tyler Harmon (11 saves) was solid in relief, he allowed a third period power play tally to Chris Forney.
Each team now faces their own challenge ahead. For Vermont, Friday was their only game on the weekend and coach Kevin Sneddon will have to either burn the tape from Friday or remind his club of their mistakes for the next six days before hosting Massachusetts twice in Burlington next weekend.
For the River Hawks, they also face the Minutemen, but will do so in less than 24 hours at home. They look to put back-to-back wins together for the first since before Thanksgiving.
Bazin said he like how his team simplified the game on Saturday night, particularly with the man advantage which finish a perfect 2-for-2. That’s something he hopes to bring against UMass.
“In hockey, in general, coaches tend to complicate the game sometimes,” said Bazin. “You need to get back to simplicity.
