BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings
LOWELL, MA – UMass-Lowell’s Andre Lee scored with 1:03 left in overtime to help the River Hawks snap a four-game losing streak as they beat the visiting UCONN Huskies, 3-2 on Tuesday night.
In losing, UCONN ended their four-game winning streak.
UCONN falls to 8-7-2 (30 points), tied for third place in Hockey East with Providence College. Hockey East scheduled the two teams on late Tuesday afternoon to play a weekend home-and-home beginning on Friday afternoon at the Schneider Arena at 4:30 PM. The game will be broadcast on NESN Plus.
On Saturday, the teams will play the return engagement game at Freitas Ice Forum in Storrs at 4 PM. The game will be broadcast locally on Channel 20-CW20.
The UMass-Lowell record is now 4-5-0.
CAVANAUGH REACTION
“I thought they jumped us good at the beginning. They were playing desperate because they hadn’t won in a few games, and we weren’t playing desperately to win our fourth in a row.
“We had a good second period, and we had a great third period and tied it up, and we had chances to win in regulation. Outside of the first (period), I was happy with the way we competed,” stated UCONN Head Coach Mike Cavanaugh.
Play in the overtime period was ragged with the two teams expending so much energy in regulation. It certainly seemed like a shootout was a distinct possibility until UMass-Lowell capitalized on an opportunity during the three-on-three OT.
Jon McDonald’s first shot was blocked by the Huskies’ Hudson Schandor but came right back to him.
McDonald spotted Reid Stefanson behind the net. He went to his left and put a pass out front to Lee, whose shot went off Schandor’s stick/skate and changed direction on UCONN goaltender Tomas Vomacka and went into the net, giving UMASS-Lowell to leave the Tsongas Center with a win.
“It’s three-on-three,” an exasperated Cavanaugh said. “The first shot was blocked went back to the guy, and we got a little out of position,”
Lee now has four points in his last two games.
VOMACKA SAVES POWER THE HUSKIES
Vomacka (29 saves) kept the Huskies in the game throughout the game, but a sensational save got the team to OT. It was a save reminiscent of one Adam Huska made two years ago on New Year’s Eve against Yale.
Late on the power play, the Riverhawks made three quick, one-touch passes, the last coming from Stefanson cross-ice to Matt Brown in the right-wing circle.
He caught Vomacka sliding over trying to get around the screen of teammate Yan Kuznetsov and UMass-Lowell’s Brian Chambers and had slid past the left post.
With an open half of the net, Brown launched his shot. Vomacka reached back with his arm blocker, knocked the puck away, and lost his stick in the process at 9:32.
“I thought he was great,” Cavanaugh said. “He made great saves for us and did his job tonight.”
GETTING THE TIE
The Huskies tied the game just 1:10 later. They executed a play that trapped two UM-L forwards and a defenseman in the Huskies zone.
Harrison Rees reversed the play on his right side and sent back a pass to the left-wing to Artem Schlaine.
The crafty freshmen Russian center quickly moved up the left-wing side and made a solid entry into the Riverhawks zone. He stopped and sent the puck back to Ryan Tverberg, trailing behind him.
Tverberg sprung off the left-wing boards with a sharp angle let his shot go just as the Riverhawks, Sam Knoblauch, who was caught trying to pinch in. Rees made his pass and reached out with his stick allowing the shot to go off the stick shaft. The puck found its way just inside the far post to tie the game at two.
“It was a great play by Harrison, and Artie made a nice pass, and Ryan has a great shot. It’s one of the reasons we brought him here. He’s a goalscorer, and he showed that tonight.”
With the primary assist, Schlaine extended his scoring streak to a team-high seven games.
ALMOST
UCONN nearly won the game in regulation as Vladislav Firstov set up linemate Jachym Kondelik with 3:55 to play, but Henry Welsch made one of his career-best 31 saves for the night. UMass-Lowell had their chance with 1:35 to go, but Vomacka stopped Chambers.
The Huskies had a solid second half of the second period, but the UML Riverhawks stole the momentum with a late period tally.
UMass-Lowell has UCONN bottled up for most of the second period before the Huskies got its most-extended and most-effective cycle in the Riverhawks’ end of the ice and tied the game at one.
“They were winning those one-on-one battles and getting to those loose pucks, and we turned that around in the second and the third. If we were winning about 50% of them.”
The whole sequence lasted for 1:50 of play and was kept alive twice by Adam Karashik’s blocks of clearing attempts. Carter Berger prevented the Riverhaws with some nifty stickhandling with the puck coming off the bench, relieving Karashik.
UCONN played a game of keep away had two shots stopped by Welsch, one on a toe drag wrister from Jonny Evans. Still, River Hawks defenseman Nolan Sawchuk gassed like the rest of his teammates lost his stick, creating an excellent opportunity.
UCONN took advantage of getting Kale Howarth on the ice with their bench close to make a line change.
HOWARTH HELPS
Evans, held in check most of the night, started to dance and weave to the net before sending the puck back to Berger coming off the left point. He rifled a shot that Welsch stopped. Still, the puck skittered behind him, and the Huskies two immense forwards, Kondelik and Howarth, converged toward the puck, and it was Howarth’s stick that pushed it over the goal line at a 14:48 for his third of the season.
“It was a great shift for us, and that’s how we want to play. We were able to get the change. Vlad was able to get off the ice for the guy who scored the goal.”
Vomacka had another of his 10-bell saves as he stoned Knoblauch coming out of the penalty box and getting a perfect pass from Schlaine that has gone past Berger off the sideboards and got Knoblauch in stride as he was exiting the penalty box. Vomacka didn’t go for the deke and closed the five-hole with 27.5 seconds left.
UCONN REGAINS THE LEAD
UMass-Lowell took the momentum back on an ill-advised pass up the middle by Karashik, UCONN’s captain, and regained their lead at 2-1.
Seth Barton snagged the pass moved in on the right-wing, tossed the puck back to Chase Bergland, took Karashik out of the play with a solid hit, and went straight to the net.
Bergland one-touched the puck over to Stefanson, who put his fifth of the season over a prone Vomacka with 15.9 seconds left in the period.
“That was a big save for us its just too bad the next shift they scored because of a bad pass,” commented Cavanaugh.
The Riverhawks used a forceful, blistering forecheck to keep the Huskies on the back foot through the first period.
FIRST GOAL
The Riverhawks used the power play to get the game’s first goal.
Brown coming off the left, let an excellent low shot go as Brian Chambers with Jake Flynn in front of him cruising in front of Vomacka and tipped his second goal of the year past the Czech junior UCONN goalie at 17:56.
The 17-7 UMass-Lowell shots advantage accurately reflected who had the greater premium shots of the period, and Vomacka was his sterling best at keeping them out of the back of the net.
At 15:45, McDonald’s had a drive rejected by, and Chambers was on the doorstep on that play. Sawchuk fed Stefanson from behind the net and tried to jam it short-side, but Vomacka had his near post covered.
He made a pair of bang-bang saves first off Charlie Levesque from the left-wing, and the rebound came right to Nick Kaiser, and Vomacka made the left pad save.
The Riverhawks’ Connor Sodergren had a tip-in at 12:38. Then Carl Bergland at 12:38 from right atop the crease area, Vomacka made sure it never crossed the goal line.
UCONN’s best offensive zone entry with some good one-touch passing saw Howarth stopped from 15 feet out.
LINES
Vladislav Firstov – Jachym Kondelik – Jonny Evans
Marc Gatcomb – Artem Schlaine – Carter Turnbull
Kale Howarth – Hudson Schandor – Ryan Tverberg
Zac Robbins – Brian Rigali – Nick Capone
Yan Kuznetsov – Adam Karashik
Carter Berger – John Spetz
Ryan Wheeler – Jake Flynn
Harrison Rees
INJURED
D Roman Kinal (knee)
NOTES
Incoming UCONN Husky commit for 21-22, Nate Hanley, was traded from the Youngstown (OH) Phantoms (USHL) and over to the Green Bay (WI) Gamblers (USHL), who are coached by former Beast of New Haven, Pat Miskech.
Former UCONN Husky captain, Miles Gendron, signs a PTO deal contract with the AHL Colorado Eagles. He is expected in their lineup for their regular season opener on the road against the San Diego Gulls on Friday.
Gendron has been skating with the ECHL Utah Grizzlies and has four goals and nine points in 13 games.
He had initially signed with the Newfoundland (St. John’s) Growlers for the season, but the team opted out of playing since the Canadian border remains closed.
UMass-Lowell’s, Sawchuk’s late great-great uncle, is indeed an NHL Hall-of-Fame goalie with the Detroit Red Wings and the Toronto Maple Leafs, Terry Sawchuk.
