LOWELL, Mass. — Following a 4-2 victory on Friday night at Schneider Arena, No. 3 Providence took the short trip up snowy I-95 on Saturday night to Tsongas Center to cap its weekend series with No. 14 Massachusetts-Lowell, who came into the contest desperate to earn at least a weekend split with the defending national champs.
Lowell came away with a 3-1 win, but it wasn’t without controversy.
At the 11-minute of the third period, a bad line change by the Friars allowed a three-on-two for the River Hawks. Dylan Zink fed a pass to Michael Kapla, who fired a shot that squeaked through the arm of Nick Ellis and trickled across the goal line, giving Lowell their first lead of the night. The River Hawks’ entrance into the attacking zone before the go-ahead goal appeared to be offsides, but the call on the ice of a good goal stood despite the officials reviewing the play.
Following the game, Providence coach Nate Leaman questioned how the offsides call was missed upon review.
“[The] second goal was offsides,” said Leaman. “I just watched it on film and I don’t know how it got missed, but that’s life and we’ll move on.”
After a scoreless first period of play, both teams came out in the second frame firing on all cylinders and were determined to get the upper edge.
Lowell’s Niklas Folin went off for tripping at 10:06, as the Friars made the River Hawks pay. At 10:58, Brandon Tanev tipped a shot from the point by Tom Parisi and past the left pad of Kevin Boyle, giving the Friars a 1-0 edge.
The Friars and Riverhawks traded blows throughout the remainder of the second period, and with just under a minute remaining, Lowell got on the scoreboard. At 19:05, Nick Master fed a saucer pass into the neutral zone for Jake Kamrass, who broke into the Providence zone on a one-on-two. Despite being outnumbered, Kamrass fired a shot over the left shoulder of Ellis and into the back of the net, knotting the game at one heading into the third period.
After Providence defenseman Conor MacPhee went off for tripping at 13:04, UML responded on the ensuing power play. At 14:42, Ryan Dmowski intercepted a clearing attempt by the Friars, drove the net and tucked the puck through the legs of Ellis to give Lowell a two-goal advantage.
Providence was never able to generate a solid scoring chance after going down two late, as the River Hawks held on for the 3-1 win.
Leaman pointed out his team’s lack of offensive touch following the game.
“I didn’t think we generated enough offense, they were faster than us at times,” he said. “We were on our heals a little bit, they were throwing a lot of pucks on net and winning the races to the second pucks. But hey, give a lot of credit to them, I thought they played incredible zone coverage tonight.”
Lowell coach Norm Bazin praised his team for their winning effort following the game.
“Good two points,” Bazin said. “I thought the urgency was there throughout all three periods. I was proud of the way the guys responded after a rough start to last night’s game.”
Bazin also believed that his team’s success was due in large part to the ability to play all four lines.
“All four lines were able to generate momentum tonight,” said Bazin. “Using all four lines helps us generate flow and it really helped us succeed late in the game.”
UML’s Adam Kapla, meanwhile, said keeping composure was the key to his team grabbing the two points Saturday night.
“We took a deep breath and tried not to get frustrated,” Kapla said. “We had to get refocused and get right back at it. I thought that helped us a lot last night and it carried over into tonight.”
