Robitaille, Bonitatibus and Velleca Score in 6-3 Loss to #4 Lowell
LOWELL, MA - Chris Auger had two goals and three assists
as the fourth-ranked UMass Lowell River Hawks netted five
unanswered goals, handing Merrimack a 6-3 defeat Saturday night at
Tsongas Arena.
With the win, Lowell, the highest nationally-ranked team in
Hockey East improves to 8-2-1 on the season, 4-1-1 in Hockey East.
Merrimack drops to 6-5-0 overall and 3-3-0 in conference action.
The Warriors return to Lawler Arena, where they are 6-0 this
season, next Saturday to battle the University of New Hampshire at
4 p.m. A limited number of tickets are available for purchase
online at www.merrimackathletics.com.
For the first time in a Hockey East game this year, Merrimack
struck first as senior J.C. Robitaille (Des Ruisseaux,
QC) pounded away at a loose puck in Nevin Hamilton's
crease and whacked it home for his eighth of the season, assisted
by junior captain Chris Barton (Calgary, AB)
and Jesse Todd (Camrose, AB) at 6:44 of the first.
But Lowell retaliated with a pair of goals 1:46 apart as Auger
fed Jeremy Dehner, who was left wide open in front of Joe
Cannata (Wakefield, MA), and the senior backhanded it into
the net to tie the game. Auger then gave the River Hawks the lead
at 12:14 on the power play as a rebound off a Scott Campbell shot
deflected right to him, and he wristed it home for his third of the
year.
After two Warriors were simultaneously whistled for minor
penalties, the hosts increased their lead to two as an Auger
slapper beat a screened Cannata for the second power-play goal in a
2:46 span, this one a two-man advantage marker, assisted by Nick
Schaus.
Campbell notched Lowell's third man-advantage tally at 12:33 of
the second as he drove to the net virtually untouched and tapped in
a puck sitting at Cannata's feet for his fourth of the year. Kory
Falite followed and all but put the game away with a breakaway
tally at 16:00 of the second.
“That's the number one team in our league, I
think,” head coach Mark Dennehy said of Lowell. “We
just didn't measure up. Our penalty kill was poor. Even in
the penalties that we killed, we weren't as aggressive as we
need to be. When we're killing penalties we need to eat pucks
and we weren't doing that. We needed to be more
aggressive.”
Merrimack's top-ranked power-play added a goal of its own in the
waning moments of the second as Justin Bonitatibus
(Walpole, MA), who had not played in seven straight games,
wristed a shot past Hamilton from a bad angle at 19:29 for his
second of the year, assisted by Adam Ross (Red Deer,
AB) and Brandon Sadlowski (St. Paul, AB)
to cut the deficit to three goals at the second intermission.
The Warriors had plenty of chances, outshooting Lowell 22-18
through two periods, but Merrimack penalties wiped out two straight
power plays, leaving the visitors with two man-advantages in the
second period that lasted under 43 seconds each. They scored on the
only power-play that last over a minute in the game.
Jeff Velleca (Waterbury, CT) made it a two-goal
game at 8:38 of the third as the sophomore took feeds from Bigos
and Stephane Da Costa (Paris, France) and wristed
a shot from just outside the left circle for his third of the
season.
But any hopes of a comeback were dashed as Paul Worthington
pushed the River Hawk advantage back to three at 11:02 beating
Cannata along the ice for his sixth of the year and second of the
game.
Campbell added a goal and two assists in the victory, while
Bigos was the lone Warriors who had a multi-point evening with two
assists.
