LOWELL, Mass. - Senior Owen Cole (Dunnville, Ontario) tallied four points, as the UMass Lowell ice hockey team (4-1-0, 1-0-0 Hockey East) picked up a 6-3 victory against Merrimack (1-3-1, 0-1-1 Hockey East) Saturday night in its Hockey East opener at Lawler Arena in North Andover, Mass.
Cole scored his third goal of the year and racked up three assists in the win that featured six different goal-scorers. Joining him in the goal department was junior Dillan Bentley (Peoria, Ill.), freshman Chris Delaney (Hopkinton, Mass.), senior Isac Jonsson (Ängelholm, Sweden), junior Connor Eddy (Victoria, B.C.) and graduate student Ian Carpentier (Worcester, Mass.). Delaney also had an assist, along with senior Ben Meehan (Walpole, Mass.), freshman Mirko Buttazzoni (Langley, B.C.), graduate student Nick Anderson (Orono, Minn.) and senior Matt Crasa (South Setauket, N.Y.).
Defensively, Meehan and Crasa led the team with two blocks each, while nine other skaters picked up one apiece. Graduate student Henry Welsch got the nod between the pipes, making 14 saves for the win.
"I was pleased with our effort tonight," said Head Coach Norm Bazin. "Several guys scored their first goal, we stuck with our process throughout the game, and I felt our third period was our best period of the night. We are growing as a group each week."
It was back-and-forth to begin the game, and it was senior Stefan Owens (Midlothian, Va.) who collected the first scoring chance at the 2:19 mark, but his shot was just saved by Merrimack goaltender Ryan Keyes. Merrimack then got on the board first at the 6:49 mark with a Michael Emerson goal, but the River Hawks retaliated when Bentley took a pass from Crasa in front of the net and sent it through the five hole for the equalizer at 11:24.
Delaney then gave the River Hawks the 2-1 lead at the 15:18 mark, taking a pass from Cole in UMass Lowell's defensive zone and blowing by a defender before firing one top shelf for his fourth goal of the season. The River Hawks took their lead to the locker room with a 12-6 shots on goal advantage.
The Warriors put the pressure on the River Hawks early in the second, but once again, UMass Lowell gained control with multiple scoring opportunities and quality shots on net. They cashed in on a power play at 8:07 with a Jonsson one-time slapshot that zoomed past Keyes for the 3-1 lead. Cole took control of the puck after Merrimack tried to freeze it against the boards, dished it out to Meehan, who found the wide open Jonsson.
After a UMass Lowell penalty at 10:06, Merrimack scored on the power play at 11:51, but the River Hawks wasted no time fighting back, as Eddy picked up his first goal as a River Hawk at the 13:16 mark off a nice pass across the offensive zone from Buttazzoni. Merrimack then picked up a power play goal with 51.8 seconds remaining to bring the game to intermission with a 4-3 score in favor of UMass Lowell.
Each team traded shots to begin the third, but it was Cole that capitalized, grabbing his fourth point of the night on his goal at the 7:27 mark. After Delaney sent a pass to Anderson near the blue line, Anderson sent a shot on goal that ricocheted off the pad of Merrimack goaltender Max Lundgren to the stick of Cole, who buried it to make it 5-3. Carpentier then potted the empty netter for his first as a River Hawk to clinch the 6-3 victory.
Next up, the River Hawks travel to Holy Cross for a standalone matchup on Friday, November 1 at 7:00 p.m.