The University of Maine got into a 3-0 hole after one period on Friday night, and couldn’t recover in falling 5-3 to #12 UMass-Lowell in men’s Hockey East action at the Tsongas Center in Lowell, Massachusetts.
UML (12-3-3, 9-2-1) would strike 8:28 into the first on a goal from Carl Berglund. Later in the period, just 29 seconds into a Maine powerplay Andranik Armstrong-Kinkade scored shorthanded at 15:52. Armstrong-Kinkade tallied once again at 18:44 to end the night for goaltender Connor Androlewicz and it was 3-0 Riverhawks after the opening 20 minutes. Jacob Schmidt-Svestrup got the visiting Black Bears on the scoreboard at 4:51 of the second. A late marker by Ben Meehan though at 19:47 proved to be the game winner to extend the advantage back to three at 4-1. Nolan Rewick tried to bring Maine back with a powerplay goal 4:03 into the third period, but Ryan Brushett ended any chance of that also on the extra man for UMass-Lowell at 16:55. Donovan Villeneuve-Houle would end the scoring with an extra attacker 6 on 4 powerplay tally at 19:07, but was too little too late as Maine falls to 3-13-4 overall and 1-9-2 in Hockey East.
Androlewicz played all but 1:16 of the first period in the loss and allowed three goals on six shots. Victor Ostman made 20 stops in relief of Androlewicz. Schmidt-Svestrup led the way offensively with a goal and one assist. Jakub Sirota, Samuel Duerr, and Lynden Breen added one assist each. Armstrong-Kinkade (2 goals), Berglund (1 goal, 1 assist), and Zach Kaiser (2 assists) had two points each in the win for UMass-Lowell. Owen Savory made 20 saves in net for the current top team in Hockey East. The teams will finish off the two game series on Saturday night at 7 p.m.
