Shane Foley
Connector Editor
The UMass Lowell hockey team continued finding the back of the net in last Friday’s action. Scoring 11 goals in their first two games, they beat the Quinnipiac Bobcats by a score of 6-3.
Despite the big score, this was a fairly close game for the first two periods. Six of the nine goals of the game were scored in the third period. The beginning of the game was closely fought, with both teams trading goals and hits alike.
The River Hawks set the physical tone of the game right at the start. With 20 seconds elapsed in the game, Evan Campbell, center, delivered a vicious hit on an opposing player. Both teams had their opponent on the boards the entire game. Head Coach Norm Bazin was happy to get back to “Lowell style hockey”. “Both teams made their opponent own their ice,” said Coach Bazin. “You had to skate through a lot of traffic.”
While the Bobcats came out shooting, the River Hawks were the first to score. Sophomore Chris Maniccia took a quick feed from Robert Francis from behind the net and popped it in the net. His was the lone goal of the first period.
The second period continued the tight play, with one goal a piece for both teams. It was a great 25 minutes for freshman CJ Smith, who was voted the number one “star of the game.” He racked up an assist in the second period and a goal in the beginning of the third period.
The goal that Smith assisted on was scored by Michael Kapla. He took a pass from Joe Gambardella, and fed Kapla with perfect position to snap off the goal.
Smith’s assist was so well placed, the shot was a no-brainer for Kapla. He didn’t feel the need to explain much about his shot selection after the game. “[Smith] passed it to me. I shot the puck,” said Kapla.
The second period was also a very strong period for goalie Kevin Boyle, who stopped 10 of 11 shots. Quinnipiac had the puck in UML’s end as much as UML had it in Quinnipiac’s. The one goal of Quinnipiac, scored by Sam Anas, came of a rebound after a couple of shots bounced off of Boyle’s pads.
The River Hawks lit up the scoreboard in the third period. Coach Bazin made several intermission adjustments to his team. “I thought [Quinnipiac] was breaking out way too easily,” said Coach Bazin.
These adjustments helped the River Hawks big time, as they held possession of the puck for much longer. They also were able to score four goals in the period. Smith, Francis, Gambardella and Michael Colantone each got the puck past goalie Michael Garteig of Quinnipiac.
Perhaps the turning point of the game came at the beginning of the third. The score was only 2-1 and the victory was still very much in jeopardy. It was then that a Quinnipiac player got in the penalty box for hooking. Despite the rough play on the boards, there were only four penalties the entire game (two per team).
The resulting power play sealed the game for UML. Evan Campbell got on a breakaway, juked a defender with some premiere puck handling, and shot the puck off the goalie’s pad. CJ Smith was tailing Campbell the entire time, and put in the puck right after him.
While the River Hawks have traditionally been a team built on defense, many are wondering whether they will put more offensive pressure on teams and outscore them. “I hope so,” said Head Coach Norm Bazin.
