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--------------- Game Recap -------------------
UNH Wildcats beat Lowell at home.
The University of New Hampshire Wildcats skated to a 5-2 victory over Lowell,
handing the Riverhawks their first home loss of the season. The win gave the
Wildcats a sweep of the weekend series as well as their sixth win in a row. The
loss was Lowell's fourth consecutive.
Lowell was likely relieved to be in the friendly confines of the Tully Forum for
this evening's matchup, in light of the current losing streak and the fact that
two of their last three losses have been to UNH on the Wildcats home ice. The
Riverhawks may have even felt like they were going to steal one from the #5
nationally rank squad as they fought back from a early 2-0 deficit and carried a
2-2 tie well into the third period. But, the nation's leading scorer, Jason Krog
would work his magic with only 3:20 to play. Taking a feed from Derek Bekar,
Krog put one by Riverhawk senior Martin Fillion to put the Wildcats up by one.
Lowell's attack seemed likely to net the tying goal with some heavy offensive
pressure, but Krog was to put another nail in their coffin with only 1:31 to
play. This time, taking a feed from Rob Gagnon, Krog placed an uncanny
backhander high off the post to the left of Fillion and the game was all but
over. Lowell pulled their goalie with a minute to play and Wildcat Dylan Dellazy
potted one into the empty net for the final 5-2 score.
The game started off with the two teams trading fast-paced rushes. Lowell
looked strong in containing UNH's potent attack while generating several good
opportunities. The smaller ice surface seemed to favor the gritty Riverhawks.
UNH was without one of their leading offensive threats, captain Mark Mowers and
Lowell was without their captain, senior defenseman Mike Nicholishen. Both
players were out with injuries.
For the first 10 minutes or so, Lowell was carrying the play. The best scoring
chance during that time was on a rush by Riverhawk forward Sean Storozuk who
split the UNH defensive pair of Christian Bragnola and Eric Lind. UNH goalie
Sean Matile turned Storozuk away with a nice pad save.
However, UNH was to show why their so dangerous when they were given a
gift-wrapped 5-on-3 power-play. Lowell's sophomore forward Chris Bell was called
for charging on a infraction behind the play. While fighting UNH's first
power-play, defenseman Anthony Cappelletti was called for slashing in front of
Lowell's net. UNH wasn't able to score during the 5-on-3, but with 0:24 seconds
still remaining on the
Cappelletti penalty, Wildcat Tom Nolan out hustled the Lowell defense behind the
net and fed Bekar in the slot. Bekar put his 11 goal of the season through the
split pads of Fillion for the 1-0 lead. UNH continued the offensive pressure and
eventually scored a second goal less than two minutes later. During a lengthy
offensive zone occupation, Wildcat defenseman Jayme Filipowicz took a low shot
from the point which Fillion stopped cleanly with his pads. The puck laid as his
feet and UNH forward Corey-Joe Ficek took another shot that Fillion also stopped
with his pads tight together. Lowell wasn't able to clear Ficek however, and the
forward took the puck out wide and slid a soft shot along the ice which hit the
post to the right of Fillion and into the net.
A late power-play for Lowell did slow the UNH attack but wasn't fruitful. It did
generate a few good chances but more importantly, it got Lowell into the locker
room before UNH could do some more damage. The shots for the period were only
9-8 in UNH's favor but it appeared that the UNH attack was going to be tough to
stop.
The second period was to be another story altogether. Lowell came out strong and
continued to play head-to-head with the powerful Wildcats. One of the Riverhawks
freshman standouts was to get Lowell on the board early in the period. Sophomore
Chris Bell took the puck down the right side on a 3-on-2 Lowell rush. With
freshman linemate Brad Rooney in the center and freshman Jeff Boulanger on the
left side, the UNH defensemen took the freshmen pair and Bell walked in deep
without much contention. He held the puck before slipping a soft pass into
Rooney who tipped it through Matile's legs from just outside the top of the
crease. Rooney's fourth goal of the year brought Lowell to within one.
Lowell continued to stem UNH's attack while generating some good offensive zone
pressure of their own. A Lowell power-play at 9:36 was to again see Lowell
denied by UNH's strong penalty-kill. With the rash of short-handed goals by UNH
against Lowell lately, it was likely that Lowell was pleased in not allowing UNH
any short-handed bids. But the potent UNH power-play was to get their third
opportunity with 8:03 to play in the period. This time, Lowell seemed to be
better prepared. After a few failed chances to occupy Lowell's zone, the
Riverhawks were able to make a short-handed bid of their own. Sophomore Greg
Koehler stole a neutral zone pass and brought the puck into the UNH zone with
senior forward Shannon Basaraba trailing him to the left. Koehler made what
appeared to be an attempt to split the UNH defense just inside the top of the
face-off circles but clearly left the puck behind. The play left Basaraba alone
with the puck below the left faceoff and he drilled a wrist shot past Matile for
the tying goal.
The period ended with Lowell enjoying a 9-3 shot advantage and tied on the score
board. The third period was to see some good play at both ends of the rink. Both
teams were skating well but the two goalies minding the nets were holding
strong. It wasn't until a 4-on-4 situation occured at 14:49 that UNH's forwards
started getting exceptionally dangerous chances. Fillion had all he could handle
until Krog's shot beat him with 0:09 to go on the penalties. A close game was
blown open by the atlented Wildcat senior as he netted his 17th and 18th goals
of the year.
Krog garnered the number one star and his teamate Bekar took #2. The number
three star went to Riverhawk forward Doug Nolan who played a tremendous game
filling in the on the decimated Lowell blueline. Nolan looked excpetionally
strong at tying up the UNH forwards in the corners as well as demonstrating a
good ability to carry the puck up ice and make good outlet passes.
Freshman forward Kyle Kidney filled Nolan's position on the Koehler line and
added some grit allowing Koehler and Basaraba to get several strong
opportunities. Sean Storozuk had another strong game while skating on Lowell's
third line.
The win gives UNH a 12-3 record with a 6-3 record in HockeyEast, good enough for
second place. Lowell falls below .500 to 6-7-1, holding a 4-4-1 record in
HockeyEast and fifth place. UNH faces off at league power Boston University on
Friday night while Lowell is hosting the slumping Maine Black Bears on both
Friday and Saturday night.
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