This is mostly impressions - details will come (no doubt) from WTS.
 
Maine finally got its act in gear last night and rallied (!) to
overcome the overachievers from Lowell.  For two and a half periods
Maine's offence was only sporadically present and Lowell's hustle
and conservative play kept them not only in the game, but even
ahead.
 
Maine opened the scoring with an early goal, but then settled into
a comfortable, unruffled tempo.  Lowell played a lot in their end,
but kept Maine from setting anything up anything decent and the
Lowwell goalie (Rollanson? a freshman - I know I've spelled it
wrong) was giving them a great game.  A offensive breakdown by
Maine - their line took off for the Lowell end without assuring
themselves they had the puck - left Straub to face two Lowell
forwards alone.  Tie game.
 
This fired Maine up temporarily - they wone the ensuing faceoff,
rushed the offensive end, and drove a shot home.  I think its the
fastest two goals in the short history of HE playoffs.  Maine
promptly dropped back to being "cool" and the period wound down.
Shots were about equal (around 10 I think) each way.  With a minute
left Maine took a 2 min penalty which would carry over.
 
Maine opened the second period very flat (and Lowell on the power
play) with the result that Lowell got the equalizer.  Lowell
really concentrated on defence this period.  They may have only
taken three shots.  Fatigue may have played some part, they were
certainly hustling in their own zone.  Maine got a lot of shots,
but few good ones, and all were turned aside.
 
In the third period it was more of the same until Lowell managed
a breakout, worked the puck well against a slow-reacting Maine
defence, and put it by Garth.  Maine was stunned and Lowell looked
sky-high.  Maine pressed harder, but could not turn domination into
a score.
 
With less than half the period left (about 7:00 min as I recall)
Riley called his timeout.  Lowell was clearly tiring and back on
their heels.  TV timeouts must have been welcome to them throughout
the game, but they were flagging.  Maybe Maine caught this, maybe
Maine suddenly realized they were on the brink of pulling a BC,
but from here to the end the offence went into gear.  Maine worked
the puck hard keeping Lowell defenders pinned back to their goal.
After several tries (I often couldn't tell fromn my seat whether
the defence or the goalie made the stop) a puck bounced off one
or two defenders and found net.
 
Give Lowell all credit - they tried to rally and go ahead again, but
transition is Maine's game and Maine's dominance brought them two
more goals to wrap up the win.  Maine plays Northeastern Friday -
do you want to hazard a guess as to the NE strategy for the game?
Walsh has some things to work on this week.
 
The Lowell goalie was made the second star of the game.  Well, I
guess its hard to make the losing goalie the star, especially
when he gives up five goals, but he gave Lowell a super performance
and showed a lot of guts.  In the second period a Maine player and
a Lowell defender got tangled during a rush and the goalie stood
in and took the impact.  He was flat on his back for several
minutes and could hardly stand when he got up.  McBride (who
called a good game, BTW) gave him a lot of time to recover, but
he looked shakey when play resumed.  He took another shot in the
third (not as bad), but finished the game and let Maine have
nothing cheaply.  He'll be something to build around.