Lowell sophomore Chris Bell scored twice in
leading the Riverhawks to a 4-1 non-conference
victory over the Skating Dutchmen of Union College
at a quiet Tully Forum this Sunday afternoon. The
game was not marked with a lot of solid scoring
opportunities as both teams struggled to find some
consistent offensive play. Freshman Brad Rooney
scored the game winner at 11:40 of the second
period giving Lowell a 2-0 lead at the time. The
Riverhawks carried that lead into the third period
when the Skating Dutchmen would draw within one at
5:50, only to have Bell regain Lowell's two goal
lead 11 seconds later.
Bell got Lowell on the board first at 1:41 of the
second period. His sophomore linemate Sean
Storozuk made a strong push to the net on the
power-play, resulting in a backhand that broke off
Union's goalie and landed in the crease. An
awaiting Bell simply had to push the puck home for
his first point of the season. Bell is known for
slow starts and any production from him in the
early season is a welcomed sign for Lowell.
Freshman Brad Rooney made it 2-0 at 11:40 of the
same period. Freshman Jeff Boulanger controlled
the puck behind the Union net and eventually slid
a cross-crease pass to Rooney for his second goal
of the year.
Lowell senior goalie Martin Fillion backstopped
the defensive effort for the Riverhawks, making 18
saves on route to his second win. He had kept
Union off the board until they went on their
seventh power-play of the game at 5:00 of the
third period. Union defenseman Paul Kilfoy took a
slapshot from the point that Fillion never saw,
floating by his normally strong glove hand. The
ensuing faceoff brought the play deep into the
Union zone were Bell outmuscled the Union defense
in the corner behind the goal line. He tried to
make a centering pass but couldn't find anyone out
front and took the puck behind the net where he
stuffed home a wrap-around goal at 6:01. Union
contested the goal on an apparent icing call that
wasn't made on the play, but the goal stood, as it
appeared the icing was over-ruled.
Union started backup goalie Leeor Shtrom who made
25 saves of his own and strengthened his position
as a contender for Union's starting role. He
"deserves consideration for the next game"
according to Union coach Stan Moore. The coach was
somewhat encouraged by the Dutchmen's improved
defensive play and stated that Shtrom's start was
not a case of experimentation during
non-conference games. However, Moore found the
Union power-play effort "lackluster", mentioning
that Lowell did a good job of reading the
breakout. He felt his players were too deliberate
in their first pass, thereby making it tough to do
anything with the puck with Lowell right on top of
the play.
Lowell coach Tim Whitehead didn't sound too happy
with his players continued behavior of making
trips to the penalty box. Somewhat encouraged by
the fact that Lowell has nearly eliminated those
"after-the-whistle" infractions, he cited that
today's penalties where a manifestation of their
continued struggle with playing strong positional
hockey. He hopes that once they "improve our
skating and improve our defensive position",
they'll manage to cut down those calls. Whitehead
noted that they won the 5-on-5 game Friday night
in Maine by a score of 1-0 and that he's pleased
with the fact they are playing well in those
situations. But, the penalties "definitely cost
us, and could have cost us again tonight. ...
we're taking some penalties because we're out of
position defensively."
Bell's sophomore classmate Greg Koehler scored his
fifth goal to ice the victory with 1:38 to play
while the Riverhawks were skating 6-on-4.
Koehler's third power-play tally of the season
came during a delayed penalty situation when
Lowell was already enjoying the man advantage. The
all freshmen line of T.C. Harris centering Rooney
and Boulanger was exerting good pressure in the
Union zone. An ensuing holding infraction on Union
sent Fillion to the bench and Koehler was sent on
as a sixth attacker. Lowell enjoyed the 2-man
advantage for close to 0:20 seconds when Koehler
let go a strong wrist shot from just inside the
blue line and the puck found the inside of the
left post with Harris and Rooney causing heavy
traffic out front. Boulanger and Chris Libett got
the assists; Libett's being his team-leading
fourth assist in the young season. The Harris line
looked "rusty in the first period" as Whitehead
said, but as the game wore on, this line was
generating more scoring chances and thereby
warranting the special team assignment. This was
T.C. Harris' first game as a Riverhawk, as he
recently recovered from a bout of mono.
Sophomore Craig Brown played his first two games
this season as he too has beaten a case of mono.
The forward has played two games on defense adding
some strong skating to a Lowell blueline corps
weakened by the "indefinite" loss of junior Wil
Tormey. Senior goalie Rod McGrath was pressed into
action to mind Lowell's net with 0:45 to play.
This move could have been Whitehead seizing maybe
his last opportunity to get McGrath some time with
junior Scott Fankhouser's pending return to the
lineup. McGrath was called to the test soon after
manning the net, finding himself all alone with a
Union forward on his doorstep. The resulting
brilliant glove save pleased Whitehead enough to
say, "That made my year!" McGrath made five saves
in that short span as Union pressed hard in the
closing minute.
Whitehead summary on Lowell's victory - "We're not
getting too excited about this win much like we're
not getting too down about our loss on Friday.
We're getting better everyday!"
------------ Union at Lowell 11/2/97 Box Score
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Scoring by periods 1 2 3 Ot
Total Penalties Powerplays
Union (0-3) 0 0 1 1
12/24 1/10
Lowell (2-2) 0 2 2 4
15/30 2/8
Shots on goal 1 2 3 Ot
Total
Union 6 6 12
24
Lowell 5 14 10
29
1st Period
--- no scoring ---
2nd Period
01:41 Lowell Bell(1) (Storozuk, Bertram) PPG
11:40 Lowell Rooney(2) (Boulanger, Harris )
3rd Period
05:50 Union Kilfoy(1) (Ralph,
Pietrzykowski) PPG
06:01 Lowell Bell(2) (Storozuk, Brown)
18:22 Lowell Koehler(5) (Libett, Boulanger)
PPG
Three Stars
1) Chris Bell, Lowell
2) Martin Fillion, Lowell
3) Sean Storozuk, Lowell
Attendance 813
Referees: Drew Taylor, Paul Scleparis Linesman:
Brian Sullivan
HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey; send information to
[log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.
|
