LAKE PLACID, N.Y. - Junior goaltender Beni Halasz (Budapest, Hungary) earned his second consecutive shutout, as the UMass Lowell ice hockey team (10-3-0, 5-2-0 Hockey East) blanked St. Lawrence (4-10-0, 0-4-0 ECAC), 2-0, Friday afternoon in game one of the Adirondack Winter Invitational at 1980 Herb Brooks Arena in Lake Placid, N.Y.
Junior Dillan Bentley (Peoria, Ill.) scored the game-winning goal for the River Hawks in the second period, with a helper from graduate student Pierson Brandon (Irvington, N.Y). Junior Scout Truman scored an unassisted empty net goal late in the third. Halasz made 20 saves in the shutout victory to improve to 2-1-0 on the year, while extending his shutout streak to 143:34. This is the 11th longest shutout streak by a goaltender in UMass Lowell history.
"We reached our first objective for the weekend tonight," said Head Coach Norm Bazin. "It wasn't a typical flow game. It was more of a war of attrition out there. I am proud of the guys for staying the course in a game decided by hard workmanlike plays. We will now focus our attention to Clarkson."
The first period concluded with zero goals for either team, but the River Hawks controlled the puck in the offensive zone for a large part of the period and created great scoring chances from junior Connor Eddy (Victoria, B.C.) and Mirko Buttazzoni (Langley, B.C.) within the first five minutes. As time went on, UMass Lowell tallied up eight shots on goal, compared to St. Lawrence's two, with the defensive unit and Halasz keeping the Saints at bay to send the game to the first intermission with a 0-0 score.
The River Hawks continued to apply pressure offensively to start the second, and Eddy picked up a near goal at the 9:12 mark, but it was just saved by the pad of St. Lawrence goalie, Mason Kucenski. Bentley eventually opened up the scoring with his fifth goal of the year at 11:25, taking a pass from Brandon and sending a wrister to the back of the net from the slot. Halasz made seven crucial saves throughout the remainder of the period to help keep it at a 1-0 game heading into the third.
The teams traded possessions throughout the majority of the third period, before freshman Chris Delaney (Hopkinton, Mass.) collected a breakaway scoring chance for the River Hawks at 14:48. This gave the squad some momentum, as graduate student Ian Carpentier (Worcester, Mass.) zoomed down the outside before hitting the crossbar. In an attempt to tie it up, the Saints pulled Kucenski with 1:51 remaining, but Truman potted the empty netter to clinch the victory for the River Hawks with 32.8 seconds on the clock.
The squad will return to Herb Brooks Arena tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. with their sights set on a tournament victory against No. 20/19 Clarkson.
