FINAL SCORE: UMass Lowell 2, Vermont 1
BURLINGTON, Vt.  – UMass Lowell scored two goals in under two minutes in the first period and hung on late to defeat Vermont 2-1 Sunday afternoon in a Hockey East matchup featured on NESN. With the win, the River Hawks improved to 3-6-1 in league play while Vermont fell to 4-6-1 overall and 3-4-1 in Hockey East.

RELATED LINKS
Box Score
CatamounTV Highlights
Photo Gallery: Postgame Skate with Cats
 
COACH'S QUOTE
"Credit to UMass Lowell, great work ethic and details to their game," Head Coach Steve Wiedler said. "We didn't show up in the first. No moral victories here – the responses in the next two periods by us is in fact a losing effort at the end of the day so it doesn't mask the poor first. You either teach lessons or get taught lessons and we were taught one tonight – the game is 60 minutes."
 
HOW IT HAPPENED

• The River Hawks opened the scoring 7:51 into the first period. Dillan Bentley fired a pass through the neutral zone and Nick Rheaume got a stick on it to play it forward. At full stride Stefan Owens beat the UVM defense to the puck and broke in alone on UVM's Gabe Carriere. Owens faked to his forehand and then beat Carriere with a backhand to put in his first goal of the season.
• 109 seconds late the River Hawks struck again, this time it was Alex Peterson picking up his first career goal. From behind the net Shawn O'Donnell centered a pass to the net front and on the back-door Peterson wired it home.
• Carriere shutdown a golden opportunity for Lowell to take a commanding three-goal edge with a penalty shot with 3:47 left in the first. Lowell's Jak Vaarwerk came in slowly and tried to fake to his backhand but Carriere followed him the whole way to keep it a two-goal deficit.  
• With 7:27 to play in the second frame UVM earned the first power play of the contest. UMass Lowell's Henry Welsch made four saves on the kill including three on UVM's Jérémie Bucheler. Seconds after the successful kill Nick Ahern rang a shot off the post.            
• With 1:09 left in regulation and the UVM net empty for the extra-attacker the Catamounts cut the Lowell lead in half. On the forecheck Zach Dubinsky and Timofei Spitserov engaged a UML defender behind Welsch. Dubinsky won the puck and with one hand on his stick he tapped it to Spitserov. Spitserov cut to the front of the net and stashed home his second goal of the season.
• Lowell's Owen Cole blocked Vermont's only other shot attempt of the contest to preserve the win for the River Hawks.

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE

• Sunday afternoon was Vermont's first home game on NESN since November 25, 2014.
• Jens Richards led all skaters with five shots on goal Sunday.
• With tonight's 2-1 decision, Community Bank N.A. will donate $75 to Special Olympics Vermont. Community Bank, N.A. donates $75 per goal to Special Olympics Vermont for every goal the men's and women's team scores this season.

UP NEXT
Vermont continues its home stand next weekend as they welcome Union to Gutterson Fieldhouse for a two-game non-conference set. The two former ECAC rivals will faceoff at 7 p.m. on Friday, December 8 and Saturday, December 9. Both contests will air live on ESPN+. As always, Adam Lafleur will call the action on WVMT from the Handy Toyota Broadcast Booth.
 
Friday night is the annual Teddy Bear Toss presented by TD Bank. In addition, PC Construction will be giving out cobranded mini-hockey sticks to the first 500 fans. Saturday is First Responders Night, all First Responders receive a free ticket with a valid form of employment ID.
 
Handy Toyota is the presenting sponsor of the U