Men’s Hockey: Lowell Wins High Scoring Battle, Topping UVM 6-5

Posted on by George Commo

Courtesy Vermont Sports Information

LOWELL, MA. — Ryan Dmowski’s shot at 13:10 of the third period clanked off the post and off the back of Stefanos Lekkas before crossing the goal line as the River Hawks took a 6-5 Hockey East win over the Catamounts Friday night at the Tsongas Center.

UMass Lowell improves to 12-8-1 overall (6-4-1 HEA) while Vermont drops to 8-12-1 (1-9-1 HEA).

COACH’S QUOTE
“We did a lot of amazing things. Certainly we played far better than we did Saturday night against UMass,” head coach Kevin Sneddon said. “Unfortunately we had some mental blocks on certain plays that kind of plagued us. It wasn’t a great defensive night.”

HOW IT HAPPENED
Vlad Dzhioshvili tied the game at a goal apiece at 9:04 of the first period just 20 seconds after UML scored the night’s first goal with assists from Alex Esposito and Liam Coughlin. The Moscow, Russia native sprinted over the blue line and picked up a behind-the-back pass from Esposito before netting his fifth of the season.
Coughlin added his fifth goal of the season at 13:51 of the period in the waning seconds of Vermont’s first power play chance. The senior picked up a pass from Dzhioshvili at the top of the right circle and fired a perfect shot through traffic in the slot and past Hernberg for the 2-1 lead.
UML’s Connor Wilson tied the game with 4:34 remaining in the opening period with a snapshot from the blue line on the River Hawks’ second power play chance of the game.
UML captain Ryan Lohin broke the 2-2 deadlock halfway through the second period after receiving a pass in the slot from Charlie Levesque. The River Hawks doubled their lead just 1:15 later as Kenny Hausinger managed to deflect a wide shot onto the cage and past Lekkas (15 saves).
Conor O’Neil cut the River Hawk lead to 4-3 with just over two minutes remaining in the second period. He picked up a pass from Ace Cowans in the slot and snapped a shot past Christoffer Hernberg (28 saves).
After UMass Lowell made it 5-3 early in the third period, captain Derek Lodermeier tallied a goal of his own less than two minutes later. Joey Cipollone intercepted a UML breakout pass on the blue line and fired a shot on Hernberg, who made the initial save and the first rebound save on Max Kaufman before the Brooklyn Center, Minnesota native found the back of the net.
Johnny DeRoche crashed the net and scored his first career goal to tie the game at 5-5 with 7:10 remaining in the third. The freshman cleaned up an O’Neil rebound for the equalizer.
Following Dmowski’s goal with 6:50 left in the third made it 6-5, Vermont’s last ditch effort at tying the game came up short.
GAME NOTES
Vermont held a 33-21 advantage in shots, including a 17-6 advantage in the final period.
Vermont and UMass Lowell combined to tally five goals that came less than two minutes following a previous goal.