Attention List Moderator I am one-in-the-same as "[log in to unmask]". This is a new account and you might want to bypass me from moderation if you want. --------------- 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. HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey; send information to [log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.