The St. Lawrence Men’s Hockey team took a tough loss Saturday against the University of Massachusetts Lowell River Hawks.  Anthony Baxter scored the first goal for the River Hawks in the first period on the way to a final score of 5-0.  Jake Stevens ’21 almost tied the game in the first period when his slapshot hit the crossbar and went straight down to the ice.  After reviewing the play, however, the referees decided the puck never crossed the line and the call on the ice stood, keeping the score at 1-0.

During the first intermission, two legends of Appleton Arena, Brian McFarlane ’55 and Bill Torey ’57 were honored.  McFarlane is SLU’s record holder for career goals with 101.  He was the voice of “Hockey Night in Canada!” for 31 years and is known for always wearing his blue jacket.  Torey is a four-time Stanley Cup champion with the New York Islanders and former president of the Florida Panthers.  He is known for always wearing bow ties. Blue t-shirts with bow ties on them were thrown into the stands to honor these SLU legends.

The Saints struggled with penalty calls in the second period with a total of four, while UMass Lowell was only given one.  The penalty differential was a huge contributing factor in the outcome of the game, as the first and fourth goals scored by the River Hawks during the second period were on power plays.   A major play in the second period was a 10-minute unsportsmanlike conduct penalty called against Carson Gicewicz ’20, with only 10 seconds remaining in the period. The Saints also struggled with setting up formations all throughout the game.  They were often clumped together, making it difficult to put pressure on UMass Lowell’s defense.

The Saints defense also struggled against the River Hawks offense. Goaltender Art Brey ’19 was replaced by Daniel Mannella ’20 during the second period with the score standing at 3-0.  Brey finished the game with eight saves at minute 29:31. The River Hawks turned the puck over at the blue line a few minutes later and moved into the Saints’ zone on an odd man rush. Kenny Hausinger scored, putting the puck past the five hole and bringing the score to 4-0. The final goal was scored by Jake Kamrass, again on a power play.

Shots on goal by SLU in the third period came from Ben Finkelstein ’20, Ryan Lough ’18, and Joe Sullivan ’18.  Lough clanged one off the crossbar, and Finkelstein’s shot was headed for the far post but was gloved by UMass Lowell’s goaltender, Chris Hernburg.  The Saints overshot the River Hawks 27-17 during the game and 11-3 during the third period alone.  SLU had a lot of offensive chances during the third period, but UMass Lowell’s defense was up to the challenge. Hernburg completed the shutout with 27 saves, and Manella managed four saves in about 30 minutes of game time. SLU now has a record of 0-6 while UMass Lowell improved to 3-3. SLU now looks to their next game away at the University of Wisconsin for their first victory on Friday, October 27, after this tough defeat against UMass Lowell. Hopefully they can build on the strong shot differential against UMass Lowell and get some pucks into the back of the net versus the Badgers.