The Lowell Riverhawks started the 97-98 season off with a 4-2 exhibition win over the Canadian university team Dalhousie Tigers. Lowell coach Tim Whitehead watched his young team play surprisingly sharp and disciplined hockey in a match that might have taken most teams off their game. In Whitehead's second year, we see an even younger squad then the one that surprised most people last year in riding their season to a fifth straight HockeyEast Semi-final berth. Senior captain Mike Nicholishen earned first star honors in leading his team with the game-winning goal as well as strong defensive and offensive play throughout.

The play was marked with heavy-hitting and some early sloppiness and the game saw 48 penalties for 138 minutes. Lowell made the most of it with 3 power-play goals in their 11 opportunities. The penalty-kill effort also kept Dalhousie off the scoreboard in 5 shorthanded situations. Both teams each scored a goal in the 4x4 play that seemed to dominate the game. The Tigers took many rough shots, some often behind the play ... and referee Jim Doyle was totally ineffective at deterring the infractions. The Riverhawks did incur 21 penalties, most of which though were for matching calls from Tiger instigations. Lowell was able to pull their game together though and displayed a pretty strong attack throughout, outshooting the Tigers 37-25. 

Lowell got on the board first during their third power-play, with Jarrod Donovan putting home a loose puck at 11:09 of the first period. The play started with freshman Nick Carso feeding Shawn Hebert for a slapshot from the point. The original shot was stopped by Tiger goalie Frederick Corkum, who looked a bit taller than his 6'4" roster listing, but Donovan was able to push the puck across the line amidst heavy traffic out front.

The first period ended 1-0 with Dalhousie gaining a 9-7 shot advantage. A lot of Lowell passes just never connected and many of Dalhousie's scoring chances in tight on senior goalie Martin Fillion. The Tigers were able to spring a few players on clean breaks of which Fillion was always up to the task. At one point, Tiger Jan Melicherick found himself  about 8 feet out but Fillion stoned him with a fine glove save about six inches off his outstretched toe.. Lowell defense was suspect at times. 

The start of the second period was a sharp contrast to the first and it would foreshadow the play for the rest of the game. Lowell started connecting on fast crisp passes and kept the offensive pressure on for nearly the whole period. Two early Dalhousie power-plays slowed down the attack and Lowell showed strong penalty-killing. Last year's HockeyEast Rookie-of-the-Year Greg Koehler won a lot of face-offs for Lowell in this cause and throughout the game. Dalhousie did however manage to tie the game at 1 when the two teams were 4 skaters a piece. A stolen clearing pass resulted in three quicks shots off Fillion, the third finally getting by him as hard-working Tiger center Chris Pittman got something to show for his effort. Pittman was often a lot for the Lowell defense to handle, getting five solid scoring chances throughout the game.

The second and third periods saw a marked improvement in defense for the Riverhawks. Strong back-checking by the forewards enabled the defensemen to be effective at attacking the play and no one was better at anticipating the Tiger's moves than Nicholishen, often standing the Tigers up at the blue line time and time again. Freshman Jeff Boulanger scored at 13:34 to put Lowell up for good. It came during a 4x4 when Lowell got the puck back to sophomore Kevin Bertram on the point. Bertram couldn't get a good handle on it and dished it over to senior assistant captain Chris Libett who got off a blistering slapshot. Corkum got most of it but the rebound trickled through his pads and Boulanger was right there to put it home. Less than two minutes later, Lowell stretched its lead to two goals when Nicholishen found the top corner with a mean wrist shot from the top of the circle. This was Lowell's second power play goal and it came after senior assistant captain Shannon Basaraba and sophomore Chris Bell had just gained the blue line. A broken play resulted in a trailing Nicholishen picking up the loose puck and putting it home at 15:49. Lowell had a 13-4 shot advantage in the period.

The third period got even messier with penalties as Dalhousie tried to get back in the game. Some matching calls early on would result in Lowell losing Koehler for 14 minutes at 4:09 and Campbell for the game at 8:31. Lowell failed to lengthen its lead to three during a five minute power-play at 7:20 but a makeshift line of junior Doug Nolan, tenacious freshman Kyle Kidney and Boulanger created several good chances. The same forwards Kidney and Nolan were able to help freshman center Brad Rooney capitalize on a 5-3 situation at 15:03. With the face-off in the Dalhousie zone, the Tigers won it and Boulanger pressured the Tiger defenseman in the corner, managing to deflect the clearing pass. Kidney picked up the loose puck and got off a shot. Rooney grabbed the loose rebound and took a few steps around Corkum to put it home. Dalhousie was able to narrow the margin to two goals at 19:03 when Fillion wasn't able to stop the third consecutive shot by Dalhousie's Richard Ujvary.

Fillion looked real strong and garnered the second-star with a 23-save performance. Boulanger took the third star with a goal and couple of other good chances while playing on the all-freshmen line with Rooney and Kidney. Its possible that Lowell could have another Rookie-of-the-Year candidate from this line. Last year's freshmen sensations Koehler and Bell look to be centering Lowell's top two lines. Koehler had Nolan and sophomore John Campbell as wingers whereas Bell had junior Mike Mulligan and Basaraba. A fourth line used freshmen Nick Carso at center and Andrew Korzen on wing with sophomore Sean Storozuk. Storozuk played a real strong game and had several good scoring chances. Carso looks real good on face-offs as well as back-checking.

Lowell's next opponent is Umass-Amherst who will also play Dalhousie this weekend. The Riverhawks could have some injuries from this game and should still be without sophomore forward Craig Brown and freshman forward T.C. Harris who are out with illnesses. Back-up goalie Scott Fankhouser wasn't dressed as Lowell suited up last year's manager Rob McGrath to backup Fillion. Lowell looks to have some decent depth at forward. The Riverhawks hope to be joined by USHL defenseman Mark Fontas who has yet to be cleared by the NCAA. Defenseman Jarrod Donovan suited up as an extra forward last night and junior defenseman Wil Tormey was scratched.