First half
St. Lawrence and Clarkson
Yale
Providence, home and home
Dartmouth
The Hawks came out firing in the first period, taking 17 shots, and having four hit the nets. Greg Koehler started the scoring 8:35 into the game, his 11th of the year, and first of the game, from John Campbell and Doug Nolan. Just over two minutes later, Nolan notched his third of the year, blasting one from the left point, assisted by Wil Tormey and Chris Bell. Then less than two minutes later, Koehler made it 3-0. Colgate lost the puck in the Hawks zone on a power play, and Anthony Cappelletti made a great pass off the right wing boards to a streaking Koehler who carried it into the Red Raiders' zone, and deked out their goalie before putting in an easy back hander. And as if that wasn't enough, Koehler added yet another power play goal tom complete the hat trick with just ten seconds left on a deflection of a Chris Libbett shot from the point, with Jeff Boulanger getting the other assist.
The Hawks just padded the lead in the second, with Boulanger scoring his sixth of the year, just 1:45 in, on a well played 2 on 1 break and a great mid air pass from Kyle Kidney that Boulanger just batted in. Brad Rooney added the other assist. Shannon Basaraba then added his first goal of the night, and fourth of the year, putting in the rebound off a John Campbell shot which Koehler also assisted on. Less than three minutes later, the River Hawks finished their scoring with Basaraba deflecting in another one on a shot from Tormey at the point, and Koehler assisted as well (his fifth point of the game). Fankhouser finally did let one get by him, to break the shutout but made 31 saves on the night. The Hawks in the meantime took 43 shots on net, and didn't look a bit rusty coming back from the break, and will face Merrimack in 48 hours in a Hockey East contest.
The River Hawks completed their weekend sweep easily beating the Merrimack Warriors at the Tully Forum in front of a small 881 Sunday night fans. 15 different players got points in the game that marked the end of the Merrimack Valley rivalry at the Tully Forum. The next time these two teams play will be at the Paul Tsongas Arena in Lowell. Lowell finished with wins in 16 of their last 17 games at Tully. The first period was dull, and both teams seemed just to be feeling each other out.
Merrimack scored the first goal on a power play, but gave up a power play goal just over six minutes later to Jeff Boulanger, the rookie's seventh goal of the year. The rookie put in the rebound of a Greg Koehler shot into the empty net, and Doug Nolan got credit for the other assist. The remainder of the period was eventless, and the game seemed to be the same till midway in the second, when Lowell finally turned it up a notch. In a period where they outshot Merrimack 14-5, Wil Tormey notched his first goal of the year as Koehler found him sneaking in from the point into the left faceoff circle on a power play. Shannon Basaraba added an assist as well. River Hawk fans had just enough time to sit down again, and 28 seconds later it was 3-1. From a very tough angle, Sean Storozuk got his fourth of the year, with Basaraba and highly recruited and finally able to play freshman Jeremy Kyte adding his first NCAA point, hopefully first of many.
Lowell kept going for the kill, but didn't get another goal till almost five minutes later, when Boulanger put on a couple of great moves and went down the left wing, and put a great shot into the net. Chris Libbett and Anthony Cappelletti, the two defensemen assisted on the goal. Merrimack did get the score down to 4-2 going into the third, and Greg Koehler put the game away 4:17 in, on a great 2 on 1 break with Boulanger, with John Campbell making the pass to spring the two forwards. After Merrimack made it 5-3 during a two man advantage, Mike Mulligan chipped in a rebound goal, as the original shot by Chris Bell came right to Mulligan for his second of the year, with Tormey getting another assist. Four minutes later, Nolan scored again on a power play, from Kidney and Cappelletti, and Brad Rooney ended UML's scoring spree, from Boulanger and Kevin Bertram, Rooney's 5th on the year.
Lowell did give up one more goal, and the final score was 8-4. Scott Fankhouser, starting in net again, made 25 saves, and Lowell took 35 more shots on net, to have a two game total of 78 with 15 goals. They must now play in New York, against Clarkson and St. Lawrence, two more ECAC teams. UML is 2-2 on the year against the ECAC.
The Hawks dominated the first period, outshooting Yale 13-4. The second was a lot more even, but was dominated on the scoring side by Yale, who put two by Scott Fankhouser, one in the opening minute of play and one in the last minute of play, both power play goals, and both on questionable penalty calls. Yale then put the game away in the third, scoring three quick goals in a 2:03 stretch to make it 6-2. Kevin Bertram scored his third of the year from Sean Storozuk and Nicholisien to end the scoring. The River Hawks find themselves tied for sixth in Hockey East and in a must win situation for a home and home against Providence. The home game against Providence marks the last ever game at Tully Forum for the Hawks.
After a scoreless first period, the Hawks broke out in front with Brad Rooney's sixth goal of the season, from Jeremy Kyte. The freshman wasn't done, as he came in for a shorthanded goal later in the same period, from Shannon Basaraba and Mike Nicholisien. This was Lowell's sixth shorthanded tally of the season, five of which have come in Hockey East games. This was the high point of the game though, as everything fell apart towards the end of the second period. With just 67 seconds left, Providence broke a scoreless streak that had stretched to over 228 minutes by having a shot from the point mistakenly redirected into the net by Lowell's Mark Fontas. Before the Hawks could regain their composure, the Friars tied it up on a two on one just 16 seconds later, as Scott Fankhouser had no shot at stopping this one. The final period was lackadaisical, as both teams tried not to lose the game, and the Hawks did have a couple of good shots in OT, but couldn't put in the winning goal.
So Tully Forum is now history, and after a road game in Providence tomorrow night, the Hawks will be opening up the sold out Paul Tsongas Arena Tuesday night against Dartmouth. Fankhouser made 22 saves in this game, including a couple of beauties in the third. Anyway, with Tully goes the memories that I have from UML Hockey, having gone to game the last six years there and becoming one of their biggest fans, as well as a huge fan of college hockey in general. The Chiefs and now the River Hawks leave Tully with an overall winning record of 178-115-18, 3 National Titles in Division II, winning more than 60% of their games, and with the hopes that the Tsongas Arena will treat them just as well.
The River Hawks went down to Providence knowing they couldn't afford a loss, putting them below .500 in Hockey East. This was Lowell's third win in four games against Providence down in Schneider Arena, including two in the playoffs last year. The Hawks welcomed Doug Nolan back after his suspension, as he scored just 4:11 into the game. It was Nolan's fourth of the year, with an assist going to Mike Nicholisien. The Hawks made it 2-0, as Chris Bell scored his eighth of the year, and his first of two on the night, from Wil Tormey and Kevin Bertram, who had three assists on the night, and leads the team in that category with 13. The Friars cut the lead in half with just 63 seconds left in the first. The game was tight till the middle of the second, when the Hawks put the game away. Nicholisien got his fifth of the year after Jeremy Kyte won the faceoff and fed the point at 9:13. Less than a minute and a half later, Wil Tormey got his second of the year, both on the power play, from Bertram and Nolan. Bell finished the scoring with 1:29 left in the second, putting a backhander into the net, from Kyle Kidney and Bertram. Fankhouser held off 30 shots, and the Hawks reached the 500 mark again at 9-9-3 and 6-5-3 in Hockey East, good for fifth place.
The first goal of the arena was credited to Dartmouth's Bob Cancelli, who managed to redirect the puck behind Scott Fankhouser, but Lowell got that one back very quickly. Just 1:07 later, John Campbell put in a power play goal from Shannon Basaraba and Kevin Bertram. It was Campbell's fifth goal of the year, and second on the power play. After that goal, the referee Paul Doyle, helped to decide the game, which is something that should never happen. First, with 15:24 left in the first, Greg Koehler made a great move to get around two defenders, and fired a slapper that got in the net, but Doyle disagreed. The referee, who was screened on the play, said that a Lowell player had been in the crease on the play, while in reality the only one in the crease at the time of the shot was the goalie. But that wasn't enough for Doyle, he was far from done in affecting the outcome of the game. During the second period, freshmen Brad Rooney and Jeff Boulanger broke in for a two on one. Rooney was picked up by the defender allowing Boulanger to skate in with the puck. Rooney was then hooked, and taken right into the goal post, at the exact same time when Boulanger shot the puck into the upper corner of the net. Doyle disallowed that goal as well, and then went one step further, calling Rooney as well as the defender for penalties. And this still wasn't the final straw for Doyle. Doyle was allowing everything throughout the third period, as players were being tripped, hooked, and mauled, but the ref had swallowed the whistle, until ... in the final minute of the game, with it tied 1-1, Doyle called a penalty on the River Hawks. The Hawks managed to kill the first half off and get the game into OT, but then couldn't manage to clear the puck when it counted.
Finally the game was over as Dartmouth redirected the game winner past Fankhouser who had made 16 saves on the night. The River Hawks now drop to 9-10-3, and begin a huge four game road trip against the Boston College Eagles on Friday night. Their next three Friday's will be on the road versus BC, BU, and BU respectively, with a game at U Mass mixed in.