Tough decision tonight; should I drive from Waltham about 100 miles south
to New Haven to watch Bentley upset Quinnipiac 3-2 or about 25 miles north
to Lowell to see UNH tie UMass-Lowell 3-3. I chose the shorter drive, as I
had never visited Tsongas arena, which is a really fine venue for ice
hockey. Official attendance was 5690, with a capacity of 6496, so fewer
than 1000 empty seats, which is apparently much better than the Lowell
Lochmeisters IHL team usually does.  I arrived an hour early and was able
to get two seats in the 7th row on the red line; not bad for $10, eh?

UNH was lucky to get a tie out of this one, on Steve Saviano's second goal
at 18:15 in the third. Saviano nearly won the game in OT on his bid for a
hat trick, but Chris Davison made the stop. The teams played pretty evenly
in the first, but Lowell dominated the second and most of the third
period, with Mike Ayers keeping UNH in the game. Both teams tried very
hard for the extra point in the OT, but only generated three total shots
on goal. Martz left the game with an injury about midway in the first and
did not return. Horst left the game with an injury about midway in the
second, but returned for the third. Lowell's sophomore first line of Elias
Godoy, Andrew Martin, and Ben Walter was impressive, as was UNH's first
line of Saviano, Sean Collins, and Justin Aikens. The game was well
officiated, with only three 2-minute penalties to each team.

Lowell beat UNH 5-4 in Durham on November 24th, so UNH needs a win in
Durham tomorrow night to tie the season series. Lowell upset UNH winning
two out of three in the HE playoffs in Durham in 2000-2001, with the
potential for a repeat HE post-season match up this season.

Scoring:
period          1       2       3       OT      Final
UNH             1       0       2       0       3
Lowell          0       1       2       0       3

Shots:
UNH             8       8       8       1       25
Lowell          6       15      5       2       28

Penalties (minutes):
UNH             0       2(4)    1(2)    0       3(6)
Lowell          1(2)    2(4)    0       0       3(6)

1st Period:
17:54   Lowell, 2 min, Tormey, holding
18:20   UNH 1, Callendar 14 (Yandle, Saviano) PP

2nd Period:
2:21    UNH, 2 min, Foley, unsportmanship
6:55    Lowell, 2 min, King, instigating
6:55    Lowell, 2 min, Collar, hitting after the whistle
6:55    UNH, 2 min, MicFlikier, hitting after whistle
19:03   Lowell 1, Godoy 15 (Martin, Walter)

3rd Period:
4:08    UNH 2, Saviano 23 (Collins, Aikens)
7:28    UNH, 2 min, McFlikier, holding
8:43    Lowell 2, Godoy 16 (Martin, Walter) PP
17:05   Lowell 3, Pandolfo 11 (O'Brien, Walter)
18:15   UNH 3, Saviano 24 (Yandle, Aikens)

UNH Roster:
1st line (RW, C, LW): Saviano, Aikens, Collins
2nd line: Callendar, Martz, McFlikier
3rd line: Winnik, Vinz, Leach
4th line: Travis, Hoppe, Foley
1st defense (L, R): Teplitsky, Lubesnick
2nd defense: Horst, Mounsey
3rd defense: Yandle, Doherty


I will visit the John A. Ryan rink in Watertown tomorrow night to see if
the Bentley Falcons can sweep their weekend series with Qunnipiac.

Go Wildcats! Go Falcons!

Thom Davis, UNH 72