Jake Kamrass watches Chris Forney’s shot go into the net while screening Boston College goalie Joseph Woll. (Matt Dwyer/Connector)
Brock Johnson
Connector Editor
The River Hawks entered the Conte Forum Thursday night riding on a five-game win streak to face the skidding Boston College Eagles. UMass Lowell looked to win at BC for the first time in almost four years, the last time they won in Chestnut Hill being Feb. 26 2013, and continue their hot streak.
Senior forward Joe Gambardella got his first and most important point of the night at 3:34 of the third period as he scored the game-winning goal. Assists went to Gambardella’s junior linemates C.J. Smith and John Edwardh.
Almost ten minutes later at 13:15 of the third, the line produced its second tally of the night with Smith grabbing a goal off assists by Edwardh and Gambardella.
The goal put UMass Lowell up by 2 with only 6:45 to play.
Gambardella commented on the success of his line, saying “I’ve had the privilege and opportunity to play with CJ Smith and John Edwardh for the past two and a half years, and it’s been unbelievable. They complement me as much as I complement them; we just kind of know where each other are going to be on that end of the ice.”
Assistant captain Gambardella, the first star of the night, and Smith, the second star of the night, have both been honored as Hobey Baker Award nominees.
In Smith and Gambardella, UMass Lowell finds themselves with two 40+ point scorers on the roster since the 1995-1996 season.
Boston College was on a streak of their own, entering play winless in their last five, tying in two games and losing three. The desperation of BC to get a win and break their slump was evident immediately after puck drop.
The Eagles came out aggressively, playing fast and physical hockey, but at times it cost them. Boston College committed three roughing penalties, an elbowing and a slashing penalty. UMass Lowell was able to take capitalize on one of Boston College’s roughing penalties.
Junior defenseman Chris Forney scored the power play goal to punish the Eagles’ undisciplined play at 17:14 of the second period. Assists went to freshman forward Ryan Lohin and senior defenseman Dylan Zink.
Zink’s assist on the goal knotted him with senior Will Butcher of Denver for third highest scoring defenseman in the nation at 30 points.
The River Hawks had failed to capitalize on power plays early in the game, but head coach Norm Bazin felt the team got better as the game went on.
“I didn’t think we started off that well… I thought their urgency was better than ours in the first period, and I thought we got better as the game went along with [our urgency],” said Bazin.
Before the 0-0 tie was broken, UMass Lowell had a great opportunity to score with the potent Smith-Gambardella-Edwardh line that totaled seven points in the game.
Joe Gambardella pumps his fist in celebration after scoring the go-ahead goal for the River Hawks in the second period.
Smith found himself on the breakaway with a Boston College defenseman hot on his heels, so he elected to drop a pass to Gambardella in the slot. Gambardella did his best to put two shots on net, but Boston College’s freshman goalie Joseph Woll made a circus play.
“I thought both goalies played very very well,” said Coach Bazin.
Boston College struck early in the third period, with senior Austin Cangelosi scoring just 25 seconds in to tie the game at 1-1.
Gambardella came back 3 minutes and 10 seconds later with the game-winner for UMass Lowell. Gambardella later capped off his 3 point night with a breakaway unassisted goal.
UMass Lowell ends their season on Friday Feb. 24 at home against Boston College, with the chance to share a part of the Hockey East regular season championship.
“Lowell plays for trophies too, not just BC. It’s one of those things… if there’s something to play for, that’s great. More importantly, we want to be playing good hockey leading into the playoffs,” said Coach Bazin.
