ORONO, Maine -- Maine's Joey Diamond (Long Beach, N.Y.) and UMass Lowell's Matt Ferreira each scored a pair of goals on Friday night as UMass Lowell skated to a 5-3 victory over the Black Bears at Alfond Arena. Stu Higgins (Troy, Mich.) tallied his first collegiate goal for the Black Bears.
Maine falls to 3-5-1 on the season with the loss and 3-4-0 in Hockey East play. UMass Lowell improves to 4-3-0 overall, 2-2-0 in conference play.
The River Hawks jumped on the board first just 2:26 into the first period on a goal by Josh Holmstrom. Both Scott Wilson and Stephen Buco assisted on the play. For Holmstrom, it was his second goal of the season.
The Black Bears answered with a goal of their own just over three minutes later by Stu Higgins. Ryan Hegarty (Arlington, Mass.) fed Higgins who eluded his defender and skated in alone on River Hawks goalie Doug Carr. The goal was the first of Higgins' career.
UMass Lowell answered back three minutes later with a short-handed goal. With Lowell trying to clear the puck while short-handed, Maine goalie Martin Ouellette (St.-Hippolyte, Quebec) came out to play it. The puck deflected to Matt Ferreira who shot it into the empty net.
The River Hawks made it 3-1 with a power play goal just over two minutes later. Derek Arnold and David Vallorani teamed up to find Riley Wetmore, who had his shot from the left of Ouellette find the back of the net.
Joey Diamond narrowed the lead after being fed the puck by Brian Flynn (Lynnfield, Mass.) and goalie Dan Sullivan (York, Penn.), who had relieved Ouellette. Diamond, with his back to the goal, back-handed the puck past Doug Carr and into the net to earn his fourth goal of the season. Flynn was credited with his eighth assist of the season and Sullivan received his first career assist. The goal came at 16:48 into the first period. The score would remain at 3-2 for the remainder of the first period.
During the second period, both teams went shot for shot, each aiming six at the net. Thanks to solid goaltending from both sides, the score remained 3-2.
The third period started in similar fashion to the second period until UMass Lowell was able to find the back of the net on a power play and give them a 4-2 lead. Zack Kamrass found Scott Wilson who was then able to grab the goal 6:48 into the period. Matt Ferreira struck again for the River Hawks netting his second goal of the night to give UMass a 5-2 lead less than three minutes later from Terrence Wallin.
Diamond scored his second goal of the night on the power play at 17:03 of the third period from Kyle Beattie (Avondale, Ariz.) and Flynn to pull the Black Bears to within one goal.
Maine then pulled goalie Sullivan in favor of an extra-attacker, but was unable to beat Carr again, despite peppering him with shots
The Black Bears finished the game with a 33-23 edge in shots in goal. Maine was 1-for-5 on the power play, while UMass Lowell scored two goals in eight chances with the man advantage.
Ouellette stopped four shots in 11:17. Sullivan, who falls to 2-2-1 on the season, made 14 saves. Carr stopped 30 shot in goal for the River Hawks.
The two teams finish their weekend series on Saturday. Puck drop is scheduled for 7 PM at Alfond Arena.