LOWELL, Mass. (Nov. 29, 2008) - Scott Campbell (Navan, Ont.) had five points, including his first career hat trick as UMass Lowell downed Rochester Institute of Technology, 6-3, Saturday afternoon in non-conference college hockey action at the Tsongas Arena.
The River Hawks have won two straight, five of six overall, and improve to 8-5-0 with the win. The Tigers have dropped two of three and fall to 5-8-1 with the loss.
"Give RIT a lot of credit," said UMass Lowell head coach Blaise MacDonald. "They did what we thought they would do and that's play very hard, physical and determined. We were fortunate to have a couple of pucks jump in the net for us, but I really thought the score and the shots weren't indicative of how the game was really played. Essentially RIT dominated us in almost every area."
Campbell led all scorers with five points in the game on three goals and two assists. He figured into the first four goals the River Hawks scored on the afternoon. The sophomore center also won 15 of 20 face offs.
"Scott Campbell played well," said MacDonald. "He was the one guy we had going. In games like this honest players come out. He exemplifies that type of player."
The hat trick was the first of Campbell's career and marked the first time a River Hawk had five points in a game since November 26, 1999 when both Chris Bell and Jeff Boulanger each had five points in a 13-1 win over Connecticut.
Junior winger Mike Potacco (Kinnelon, N.J.), with a career-high four assists, and David Vallorani (Hamilton, Ont.), with a goal and an assist, also had multi-point games for UML.
Campbell and Potacco teamed up for the first two goals of the game including assisting on the first goal of the game scored by Kory Falite (Billerica, Mass.) at 8:15 of the first. Campbell scored his first of the night at 15:45 from Potacco and Ryan Blair (Ashland, Va.).
Matt Crowell (Kelowna, B.C.), who scored two goals for the Tigers, got the Tigers on the board at 19:08 of the first period. He scored his second at 7:51 of the second.
In between Crowell's goals, Campbell scored his second of the night, just 17 seconds into the second period. He completed the hat trick at 16:50 of the second on a five-on-three power play goal.
Sammy D'Agostino (Medford, Mass.) and Vallorani scored third period goals to cap the scoring for UML. Potacco earned his fourth assist of the game on D'Agostino's goal. Campbell added his second assist and fifth point of the game on Vallorani's power play goal.
Brennan Sarazin (Nepean, Ont.) scored RIT's third goal of the game at 18:21 of the third period, just five seconds after their fourth power play expired.
Nevin Hamilton (Ashland, Mass.) made 14 saves to earn his fifth win in goal for the River Hawks. Louis Menard (Chicoutimi, Que.) stopped 21 shots for the Tigers, but took the loss.
The River Hawks out-shot the Tigers 9-4 in the third period and 27-17 for the game. UML was 2-for-9 on the power play. RIT was 1-for-4 on the man-advantage.
The River Hawks return to the ice Friday night when they host New Hampshire in the first of a home-and-home series. The Tigers next play Friday night when they travel to Air Force.