BOSTON – While UMass Lowell was almost certain to get an NCAA bid regardless of their Hockey East final against Northeastern needed the win or help from around the country.
They decided to take matters into their own hands.
Zach Ashton-Reese scored on a power play midway through the third period broke a 2-2 tie and was enough to lift the Huskies to their first conference title since 1988.
“I’m so thrilled and proud of our whole team,” Huskies’ coach Jim Madigan said. “They’ve battled hard and they’ve shown a lot of resiliency and resolve over the course of the year.”
Northeastern’s rise has been remarkable; the Huskies started the year 1-11-2 and 0-7-1 in the Hockey East, and finished on a 20-1-2 run.
“I’m so pleased and so happy for them to know that we won the university’s second championship in 32 years,” Madigan said. “It’s not like we’ve done it a lot. This is a memory that they’ll have forever.”
Northeastern’s Kevin Roy talked about his decision to come back for his senior season.
“That was honestly the biggest reason I came back was to accomplish something,” he said. “We got so close my sophomore year but we fell short. I think our team’s leadership helped us through the 1-11 start this year. We are here because of the leaders on our team and the kids who preformed”.
UMass Lowell goalie Kevin Boyle was the MVP of the tournament, winning the award on the strength on a 58-save, triple OT win in the semifinal.
“There is no consolation to winning the championship,” Boyle said. “It doesn’t matter what personal award I win. I think everyone in that locker room would agree that a team trophy is far better than an individual trophy.”
The TD Garden was rocking on Saturday night with both schools packing the fan sections. From the drop of the puck Lowell looked tired and sluggish after playing six periods Friday.
Northeastern’s Adam Gaudette opened the scoring at 1:12 of the first period after getting a back door pass from Mike McMurtry. Dylan Sikura was given the secondary assist on the game’s first goal. The River Hawks went on the attack and even appeared to score a bar-down goal on Ruck, but it was waved off.
But 30 second later the Hawks did tie the game on a goal from John Edwardh assisted by Joe Gambardella and Tommy Panico. The first shot was reviewed and determined no goal, while the second one stood as a good goal.
The River Hawk defense struggled in the first to maintain the puck, luckily Kevin Boyle was there to bail them out.
Dylan Zink was sent to the box with a hooking minor, give Northeastern their first power play of the game. Nolan Stevens scored for the Huskies on the ensuing power play, John Stevens and Aston-Reese were given the assists on the goal. At the end of the first period it was Northeastern over Lowell 2-1, with the shot 8 to 7 for the Huskies.
The second period was a completely different story, the River Hawks came out gunning. They were all over the Huskies from the drop of the puck, and goalie Ryan Ruck seemed to have trouble dealing with all of the Lowell traffic in front. The River Hawks beat down the Huskies defense and forced Ruck to make a number of reaction saves.
The Huskies struggled to find any sort of offense with the Lowell defense cracking down. The River Hawks hit two posts in a row, but after that Ruck shut down any second chance opportunity for the Hawks. In the ladder stages of the second period the Hawks went back on the attack pounding away at Ruck.
Lowell finally broke through on a goal from Adam Chapie who roofed it over Ruck’s blocker, Jake Kamrass and Dylan Zinnk got the assists on the goal. The Huskies seemed to find their footing after that goal, but it was too late in the period for them to do anything significant. The second period ended with the game tied t two and the shots 18 to 16 for the Huskies.
Both teams came back out for the third period trying to find some sort of edge in the game. The third was a lot more balanced with both teams gaining more chances as the period went on. The Huskies seemed to get the more quality chances, but Boyle continued to shut them down, until Ashton-Reese’s winner.
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