LOWELL, Mass. - Sophomore Scout Truman (Lethbridge, Alberta) scored two goals with an assist, as the UMass Lowell ice hockey team outscored RV/No. 20 Northeastern, 4-2, on Friday night at the Tsongas Center. The victory gives Head Coach Norm Bazin his 300th win as an NCAA Head Coach, dating back to the 2008-09 season, when he collected his first NCAA win as the Head Coach of Hamilton College.
Joining Truman in the scoring department was graduate student Nick Granowicz (Macomb, Mich.), who has now scored in two consecutive games for the River Hawks, and sophomore Jack Collins (Canton, N.Y.). Freshman Jak Vaarwerk (Clarence, N.Y.) tallied two assists on the night to lead the team, while six other skaters picked up one helper apiece.
Defensively, nine different River Hawks gathered a blocked shot, as Granowicz paced the team with four, ahead of sophomore Mark Cooper (Cambridge, Ontario), senior Ben Meehan (Walpole, Mass.) and Truman, who each had two. Senior Henry Welsch (Lakeville, Minn.) got the nod between the pipes for the River Hawks, making 27 saves for the victory.
"I'm glad we had a good start tonight," said Bazin. "I thought it helped us get off on the right foot. I was pleased with our forecheck, I thought it was more balanced than the last few games and that again helped us reload and play defense. For the bulk of the game, I thought we kept things in check. Obviously, they made a push in the third period, and we weathered the storm, we bent but we didn't break in a lot of instances and that got us a win. So, it feels good to get a win."
The offense exploded out of the gates for the River Hawks, scoring two goals in the first eight minutes of play. Granowicz got the team going early, at 3:37, deflecting a Vaarwerk shot to the back of the net. Truman got the play started with the feed to Vaarwerk near the blue line, before Vaarwerk put it on net towards Granowicz.
Just over four minutes later, at the 7:32 mark, Truman received a between-the-legs pass from Bentley and charged towards the cage, making a move on both a defender and the goalie before backhanding it into the open net. Meehan picked up the secondary assist, getting the puck out of the defensive zone and onto the stick of Bentley. Welsch and the defensive unit were able to keep the Huskies off the scoreboard for the remainder of the period and killed off a penalty with five minutes remaining to send it to intermission with a 2-0 score.
The River Hawks kept the offense going in the second period, as Collins extended the lead at the 4:26 mark. Senior Brehdan Engum (Burnsville, Minn.) handed it off to Cooper at the offensive blue line, before Cooper found Collins in the right faceoff circle, who fired a wrister past Northeastern goalie Cameron Whitehead for his second of the year. The Huskies answered right back with a goal of their own less than a minute later, but it was the River Hawks who got the last laugh again, when Truman scored his second of the night with just under six minutes remaining in the period. Vaarwerk and Granowicz got their sticks on a loose puck in front of the net, before it found its way to the stick of Truman, and he buried it to make it 4-1.
Northeastern started off the third with a Brett Edwards goal just over three minutes in, making it a two-goal game. However, in addition to the eight blocked shots by the River Hawks' skaters in the period, Welsch proved to be a game-saver in net, making 15 stops to account for more than half his total saves. After a hard-fought remainder of the third, the River Hawks held on for the 4-2 victory.
Next up, the River Hawks will look for the sweep as they travel to Northeastern tomorrow for game two of the home-and-home series. Puck drop is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. at Matthews Arena.
