UMass-Lowell’s 10-game unbeaten streak came crashing to the ice Friday night inside Tsongas Center after the River Hawks were soundly beaten by Providence College, 6-1, in front of 4,683 glum fans.
The Friars were led by a two-goal performance from junior left wing Kasper Bjorkqvist and multiple-point showings from wings Brandon Duhaime (goal, assist), Greg Printz (goal, assist) and Jack Dugan (two assists), and three assists from defenseman Jacob Bryson. Junior Hayden Hawkey turned aside 20 shots to earn the win.
It was the most goals allowed by UMass-Lowell since falling at Vermont on Jan. 20, 2018.
“Overall, our opponent took it to us from minute three until minute 60. I liked our first three minutes but not much after that. Our attention to detail was poor. Our focus needs to be better,” UML coach Norm Bazin said. “I had the feeling during the week that we were believing a lot of the nonsense that was being printed and these types of nights can ground you a little bit. Overall, our opponent came in ready to play to hockey and we werent ready. Games like this start with me. (Saturday) we can get the poison out.”
Friday night’s game represented a matchup between the Nos. 2 and 4 teams in the Hockey East.
“It was nice for us to score some goals because we’ve been struggling a little bit of late,” Providence coach Nate Leaman said. “That was the difference in the game. They do a good job of getting on top of teams in this building so we wanted to be ready for the first six or seven minutes.”
UML (17-9-2, 11-5-2 HE) put the first puck into a net at the 1:26 mark of the opening period but before the fans and River Hawks bench could cheer, the officials waved it off, ruling correctly that UML sophomore center Connor Sodergren, who had been stopped by Hawkey on the initial shot, prevented the goalie from playing his position. It was an easy call and drew little protest from the home bench.
PC (17-9-5, 10-7-2) scored the official first goal on a beautiful re-direction play by Bjorkqvist, who merely turned the blade of his stick to steer a pass from Josh Wilkins into the upper region of the net for his 12th goal.
The Friars kept the pedal to the metal and made it 2-0 at 10:59. Duhaime fired a shot from the left that caught UML goalie Tyler Wall (28 saves) too deep in his crease.
UML, which thoroughly outplayed then-No. 2 UMass in the same rink one week ago, looked a tad sluggish and it was evident after the Friars widened the gulf to 3-0 at 3:40 of the middle period. Bjorkqvist again did the honors with a backdoor finish from freshman Dugan.
The River Hawks were in a deep hole at 10:58 of the second period. Duhaime put on the brakes and sent a pass over to the far side where freshman defenseman Michael Callahan was pinching deep. The Franklin native one-timed the offering to beat Wall to make it 4-0. The lights went out for UML when the Friars made it a five goal bulge at 19:05. The tally went to Printz, who celebrated his 10th goal.
Sodergren snapped the shutout hopes of Hawkey at 3:13 of the third but the River Hawks euphoria lasted only 19 seconds until freshman Tyce Thompson converted at 3:32.
