Well, at least they refuse to lose at the rate everyone predicted. ;) Can't write a lot about these games since I'm so busy, but wanted to jot down a few quips at least. First of all, the Lowell freshman were silent. It was Lowells' seniors who really came through this weekend. Especially, Ryan Sandholm with 9 points and HockeyEast Player of the Week honors. UNH embarrased Lowell on Friday. The were completely dominating, especially on the power-play and I left in awe of the UNH power. Lowell did make it 4-2 but found it 8-2 not before long. They scored a couple of late goals and played really strong for the last ten minutes. Lowell started actually connecting on a few passes and actually giving UNH a somewhat hard time as the entered the Lowell zone. The game was extremely chippy, regardless of whoever was referee. These players were really taking runs at eachother. Lowell's Nicholishen was slammed hard and although he stood right back up ... it was clear he had little idea of where he was. Two Lowell players had to catch him from falling and help him off the ice. He recovered nicely. UNH's Nickalus was involved in a tangle and thrown out which prompted him to swear obsenities ... one after another ... as he left the ice. A Lowell fan started calling him a "scumbag" in an obsessed, frantic manner (which left us all a little amused and somewhat embarrassed.) A UNH coach saw this fan leaning over the runway wall yelling at Nickalus and the coach threw a fit. The fan had returned to his seat by the time the cops arrived and the police had a real hard time being sure they had the right man once the coach had pointed him out. You see, the man looked terribly meek and innocent. It was quite hilarious watching the cops expression as they realized they indeed had the right man. They must have asked the coach three times "Are you sure its THIS guy?". This coach was incredibly irate and I feel he terribly over-reacted. Quite a hot-head! Lowell came back in a big way on Saturday. Right from the start (well, actually after UNH scored :17 into the game), Lowell played inspired, tight, clean and effective hockey. All night long they thwarted UNH's attack soon after they would enter the Lowell zone. There were very few defensive lapses. UNH scored most of their goals on pretty rushes and if they didn't score, they got very few second chances. Lowell on the other hand actually demonstrated some great offensive pressure and scored several goals from this. The game was clean for the most part but the officials got some horrendous treatment for some of their calls. The third period was 5-3 Lowell for more than half of it until UNH scored one to pull within a goal. Lowell didn't choke though and carried a lot of the play from 10:00 to about 16:00 (including a PP-goal around 15:30 making it 6-4). UNH got whistled again for a blatant interference call on a Lowell "crash-the-net" play with about 4:00 to play. While they were trying to kill the penalty, a UNH player on his knees reached out to grab a loose puck and fling it behind him. He was just trying to get it out of the slot but he flung it up into the crowd. Delay-of-game was called and the crowd was furious. What did they expect? You can't grab the puck and fling it out of the rink...especially when its right in front of your net in the midst of the opponent's pressure. Anyhow, UNH played shorthanded quite a bit (sometimes 5-on-3) until they returned to even strength. Lowell freshman Greg Koehler put one in the empty net at 18:16 to make it 7-4 before UNH's freshman Sadowski scored the final tally at 19:02 on a real nice rush. UNH's freshman tallied several points throughout the weekend, especially Mike Souza who earned HockeyEast Rookie of the Week honors with five points. The same coach who flipped out after during the Friday game pulled the same thing after the game while the teams were shaking hands. He chased the officals around the ice, berating each of them very loudly and much to the pleasure of the UNH crowd. HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey; send information to [log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.