Trevor Cullen
Connector Editor

After being shut out in a 3-0 loss on Friday night at Boston College’s Conte Forum, the River Hawks returned home to a record-breaking crowd at the Tsongas Center on Saturday evening to try and return the favor.

Through two periods, Boston College managed to keep the anxious crowd at bay by building a 2-0 lead, but the River Hawks brought the 7,649 in attendance to their feet with a power play goal at 6:49 of the third period scored by Adam Chapie.

Head Coach Norm Bazin told his team after the second period that if they could manage to bring the fans back into the game, good things would happen.

“If you give the crowd a chance to get into it, you’ll see two goals…you’ve got [7,649] people in the stands and that creates a whole lot of energy,” Bazin said.

The pace picked up in the third period, especially after Chapie’s goal. Bazin displayed why he’s led UMass Lowell to three straight 20-win seasons with his innate hockey sense when A.J. White scored off a rebound and tied the game for the River Hawks, right on cue with his head coach’s prediction.

“Whenever you can get a point from the number one team in the country you should be fairly pleased,” Bazin said. “Sometimes you tie and it feels like a loss, and today it felt like a win at the very end.”

Both Lowell and Boston College had their chances during the rest of regulation and the overtime period, but stellar goaltending for each team led to a point apiece in Hockey East from Saturday night’s tilt.

Senior Doug Carr got the start in front of the home crowd for the River Hawks and did not disappoint, tallying 41 saves, four short of his career high.

The Eagles have already won the Hockey East regular season title, largely because of the outstanding play of their top line which features college hockey star Johnny Gaudreau. Gaudreau has been having an unbelievable season – he’s currently riding a 27 game point streak and has been held scoreless in just one game this season.

While the contest Friday night featured some nastiness and rough play, Saturday night proved why college hockey can be one of the most exciting sports available for fans to watch. Each evening, massive crowds came out to support their respective teams, and the results were two very competitive hockey games.

“It’s just good for college hockey when you’ve got big crowds,” Bazin said as a way of summing it up. “It was a very good point in Hockey East against a very good hockey team.”
If last weekend was any indication of what playoff games between these two teams might look like, college hockey fans everywhere should be excited.