LOWELL, Mass. - Vermont (10-13-3, 5-9-2) scored three goals in 95 seconds at the start of the second period on route to a 5-3 win over No. 9 UMass Lowell (14-9-3, 7-7-2) Friday night in Hockey East action from the Tsongas Center.
COACH'S QUOTE
"Really proud of our guy's effort tonight," said Head Coach Steve Wiedler. "That was winning hockey for 60 minutes, not perfect, not mistake free, but that's life. How do you respond after something bad happens and I thought we responded every time in an extremely positive way. It was a fun bench to be on tonight to be honest. You could feel their enthusiasm and belief. That's a huge Hockey East win against a top ten ranked opponent."
HOW IT HAPPENED
- In a scoreless first period sophomore goaltender Axel Mangbo made 10 saves for the Catamounts.
- Vermont appeared to open the scoring on the power play 2:47 into the middle frame. Joel Maatta pounced on a rebound at the side of the net with traffic all over UML's Beni Halasz. Although it was called a goal on the ice the officials reviewed the play and disallowed the goal ruling Isak Walther made improper contact with Halasz in the crease.
- Unfazed Maatta and Walther teamed up to right the wrong just 30 seconds later. On the forecheck Walther forced a turnover in the slot and he deftly dropped a pass back to Maatta who one-timed home his fifth of the season to make it 1-0 with a goal just as the power play expired.
- 43 seconds later Xavier Henry doubled the Vermont advantage. Daniel Sambuco centered the puck from behind the net and it found its way through traffic to the UVM defenseman. He wasted no time and rifled a wrist shot just under the bar to make it 2-0. Blake Steenerson earned the secondary assist on the tally.
- UVM made it three goals in 1:35 with well-executed faceoff play. Will Zapernick won it clean back to Sebastian Tornqvist and he fired a shot towards the net. Jens Richards cut right to the net off the faceoff and redirected the puck past Halasz for his fifth goal of the season.
- The River Hawks scored the next two goals of the game to make it 3-2. At the 10:04 mark of the second Owen Cole scored banking a rebound off Mangbo and in. With 4:17 to play in the second Chris Delaney notched his eighth goal of the year.
- Timofei Spitserov snuffed out the River Hawks momentum with his ninth goal of the year with 2:45 to play in the second. Colin Kessler dumped a puck out of the Vermont zone and Spitserov won the battle for the loose puck before firing a quick shot just inside the post that fooled Halasz.
- The River Hawks pushed hard early in the third period, outshooting UVM 6-0 in the early going but Mangbo was up to the task.
- UMass Lowell converted off a UVM turnover in their own end to cut it to 4-3 8:23 into the third period. Ben Meehan skated in alone on Mangbo and beat him with a wrist shot just inside the post.
- A little over a minute later Zapernick rang a shot off the post for Vermont, just missing a chance to reestablish the two-goal lead. However with 1:39 to play Spitserov put the game out of reach with an unassisted empty-net tally.
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
- Timofei Spitserov has four goals in his last three games and now leads the team in scoring with 10 goals.
- UVM is 6-1-0 this season in games when Spitserov scores.
- Following this evening's effort Vermont is 7-0-3 this season when leading after two periods.
- Catamounts have seven roads wins this season after tonight's win, the most since the 2017-18 campaign.
- Tonight was Vermont's fifth win this season over the current top-16 in the Pairwise.
- Tonight was Vermont's first win at the Tsongas Center since March of 2014 in the Hockey East Quarterfinals.
- With tonight's 5-3 decision, Community Bank N.A. will donate $375 to Special Olympics Vermont. Community Bank, N.A. donates $75 per goal to Special Olympics Vermont for every goal the men's and women's team scores this season.
- The Catamounts won tonight which means that Vermont Mutual Insurance will be donating $100 to the Lund Center. A special thank you to Vermont Mutual Insurance for their support. Vermont Mutual Insurance, protecting Vermonters since 1828.
UP NEXT
The Catamounts will complete their five-game Hockey East road trip next weekend as they travel to face Merrimack in a two-game set at Lawler Rink. Vermont will face the Warriors at 7 p.m. on Friday and Saturday night. Both contests will air live on ESPN+ and as always it will also be broadcast on WVMT (96.3 FM/620 AM) with the voice of the Catamounts Adam Lafleur in the Handy Toyota Broadcast Booth.
