LOWELL, Mass. - The UMass Lowell ice hockey team (10-4-2, 5-3-1 Hockey East) kicked off the second half of the season Sunday afternoon, hosting Simon Fraser (5-10-0) for an exhibition matchup at the Tsongas Center and picking up a 9-2 victory.

Seven different skaters tallied two-point games, with senior Owen Cole (Dunnville, Ontario) and junior Dillan Bentley (Peoria, Ill.) each scoring two goals. Freshman Libor Nemec (Bratislava, Slovakia), graduate student Ian Carpentier (Worcester, Mass.) and graduate student Nick Anderson (Orono, Minn.) all collected one goal and one assist. Sophomore Girts Silkalns (Talsi, Latvia) and junior Roc Truman each finished with two assists. Joining them in the point department was sophomore Jak Vaarwerk (Clarence, N.Y.), freshman Chris Delaney (Hopkinton, Mass.) senior Isac Jonsson (Ängelholm, Sweden), junior TJ Schweighardt (Manahawkin, N.J.), freshman Mirko Buttazzoni (Langley, B.C.), freshman Jacob MacDonald (Fort Worth, Texas), sophomore Sean Kilcullen (Kensington, Md.) and junior Scout Truman (Lethbridge, Alberta).

Graduate student Henry Welsch (Lakeville, Minn.) and junior Beni Halasz (Budapest, Hungary) each spent half the game in net for the River Hawks, recording eight saves apiece.

"Today was a step towards finding our conditioning again," said Head Coach Norm Bazin. "The guys kept their shifts short and made a real attempt to play the right way. Several guys had a chance to play and contribute which is good for team chemistry. We'll have a few more days of practice before we head out to the Cactus Cup. We look forward to joining River Hawk Nation in California."

Cole kicked it off just under seven minutes into the contest, sniping one past Simon Fraser goaltender Jesse Makaj from the left faceoff circle. Anderson started the sequence, bringing the puck up and finding Carpentier, who zoomed into the zone and fed Cole.

Later on, at the 14:58 and 15:17 marks, the River Hawks added two more goals just 19 seconds apart from each other from Nemec and Bentley. Nemec ripped a wrist shot past Makaj after Vaarwerk sent him a long pass, while Bentley cleaned up a Delaney rebound for the goal after Nemec found him across the offensive zone.

Simon Fraser opened up the second period with a goal at the 1:32 mark, but Carpentier answered right back at the 9:13 mark for the River Hawks. Schweighardt collected the puck in the neutral zone and raced into the offensive zone, creating a 3-on-1 where he sent a cross-ice pass to Carpentier, who finished it for his second point of the day. Both teams went to the locker room with the score at 4-2.

The River Hawks turned it up a notch in the third, picking up five goals from five different goal-scorers. Anderson got it started, with assists from Buttazzoni and Roc Truman, before Bentley potted his second of the night and MacDonald sent home a loose puck in the crease to make it 7-2. The squad concluded the game with Cole's second goal of the matchup, as well as a goal from Scout Truman to secure the 9-2 exhibition victory.

The River Hawks will now focus their attention to the Coachella Valley Cactus Cup in Palm Springs, California on Friday, January 3 and Saturday, January 4. They face off against Michigan Tech on Friday at 3:30 p.m. and depending on the result, will take on either Holy Cross or Omaha in game two on Saturday.