HAMILTON, N.Y. - Junior Owen Cole (Dunnville, Ontario) and graduate student Nick Granowicz (Macomb, Mich.) each netted a pair of goals, helping the UMass Lowell hockey team (3-1-0, 0-0-0 Hockey East) to a 5-2 victory against Colgate (2-3-1, 0-0-0 ECAC) on Saturday evening at Class of 1965 Arena in Hamilton, N.Y. The win gives the River Hawks the two-game series sweep of the Raiders.
Sophomore Dillan Bentley joined Cole and Granowicz in the scoring department, also earning his first of the season. Fellow sophomore Scout Truman (Lethbridge, Alberta) assisted three of the team's goals for the second consecutive game, giving him six points on the weekend. Senior Henry Welsch (Lakeville, Minn.) was solid between the pipes for the River Hawks, making 25 saves.
The first period was quiet compared to the rest of the game, as neither team found the back of the net in the first 20 minutes. Colgate finished with the edge in shots on goal, 10-6, but the best chance came on a freshman Jak Vaarwerk (Clarence, N.Y.) breakaway. He picked up the puck on a Colgate miscue at 15:09, leaving just him and Colgate netminder Andrew Takacs, but Vaarwerk's shot caught a piece of the outstretched pad of Takacs. After the River Hawks collected the first power play of the game that Colgate was able to kill, the Raiders drew two penalties of their own for power plays, hitting the post once and firing shots that Welsch and the River Hawks defense were able to step in front of. Bentley followed up the River Hawks' final penalty kill with a great scoring chance in front of the net, but Takacs made the save, and both teams entered the locker room knotted up at zero.
The River Hawks opened the scoring in the second at 12:01, when Cole collected a Truman rebound off the pad of Takacs and sent it to the open side of the net to give the River Hawks the 1-0 lead. Graduate student Alex Peterson (Collegeville, Pa.) had the first opportunity of the period, prior to the goal, at 18:27, after sneaking behind enemy lines and stealing the puck in front of the Colgate net. He took a quick shot that was just saved by Takacs.
Freshman Adam Cardona (Beaconsfield, Quebec) also put the pressure on the Raiders in the second, taking a deep shot from the blue line that hit the side of post. Welsch continued to successfully defend the River Hawk cage, making seven saves in the period, including two rapid fire stops just before the halfway mark.
The River Hawks brought the energy with them to the final period, scoring two goals within the first two minutes. Starting the period with 41 seconds left on a power play, the River Hawks controlled the puck in the Colgate zone when Ben Meehan centered a hard pass that Bentley backhanded past the goalie to the top shelf just 38 seconds in. Just a minute later, Cole picked up his second goal of the game off a feed from Matt Crasa to make it 3-0.
Colgate found a way to take back the momentum not long after, as Ethan Manderville scored a power-play goal to cut the deficit to two, before Levi Glasman netted one just 24 seconds later, making it 3-2 with 12:43 remaining. However, Granowicz scored his first goal as a River Hawk when Truman hit him on a power-play 2-on-1, giving the River Hawks a two-goal lead once again. Granowicz added the empty netter with 5.5 seconds remaining to clinch the 5-2 victory.
Next up, on Friday, October 27, the River Hawks open Hockey East play in their home opener against UConn at the Tsongas Center at 7:15 p.m. The team then hops right on a bus to finish off the two-game set at UConn on Saturday, October 28 in the XL Center in Hartford, Conn. At 4:00 p.m.
