After blowing 3-0 lead, UMass-Lowell defeats Miami in OT
By Adam Wodon
BRIDGEPORT, Conn. -- It was over. Massachusetts-Lowell was done.
Turn out the lights.
But then, it changed.
|
| River Hawks goaltender Doug Carr stopped 30 shots on Friday night. (Dave Arnold Photography) |
After blowing a 3-0 lead, the River Hawks were on life support,
getting dominated, then needing to kill off a 5-minute major
penalty that stretched into overtime.
Just moments after somehow surviving that, Lowell turned it
around. Playing hurt, senior captain Riley Wetmore got free on the
doorstep, and shoved in a rebound, 2:13 into overtime, his second
goal of the game, sending the River Hawks into the second round of
the NCAA Tournament with a 4-3 win over Miami.
Lowell will face Union in the East Regional Final, Saturday a 6:30
p.m.
"It gave us a big sense of urgency and made us a little hungrier
team," Wetmore said of the penalty kill late in the game. "In OT we
regrouped and we knew in the room we had it."
Said Lowell coach Norm Bazin, "It was imperative we had a break at
that point, quite honestly, because we used a lot of the same guys
killing, so it was good to get a break, and just to re-focus."
As good as Lowell looked in the first period, it looked that bad
in the third. It started auspiciously, then got worse.
Miami scored 14 seconds aparts, from Trent Vogelhuber and then
Austin Czarnik on a breakaway.
"I didn't think the first goal necessarily affected us, because we
knew they would score eventually," Bazin said. "But when our point
man threw it in their pads for a breakaway, that was a tough
one."
As Miami pressed through the third period, it took a bad penalty
that seemed to give Lowell a chance to catch its breath. But Miami
killed it off, and just as Alden Hirschfeld stepped out of the box,
he was able to grab a loose puck near the door, and move in on a
3-on-1. Hirschfeld slowly moved in on net, waited, made a move, and
put it past Lowell goalie Doug Carr to tie the game.
"It's part of the game as a goalie that you'll get scored on and
be in tight situations," Carr said. "But I've been in situations
like that before ... it's one of those things that when you get
scored on, you have to put it behind you and not alter your game at
all."
With Lowell still on its heels the rest of the way, it put itself
into further trouble by taking a five-minute major for checking
from behind with 3:25 left. The offender, Jake Suter, was also
tossed from the game.
Miami was all over the net in those closing minutes of regulation,
and if not for a number of remarkable saves by Carr, each one
better than the next, the game never would've gotten to OT. The
best was when Carr kicked out his left leg and barely got a piece
of the puck with his skate, robbing Miami's 30-goal scorer Reilly
Smith of the game winner.
"At that point they're piling it on a little bit," Carr said. "We
were doing a good job keeping pucks to the outside. That shot came
from the right point. I went down. It hit someone in front of me
and went to Smith. It's- one of those desperation saves where
you're trying to get as far towards the pipe as you can, and I got
my skate there in time."
In overtime, as the power play continued, Miami hit the crossbar
just before it expired. Next thing you know, Lowell was off the
other way.
"Early when they came in waves and were buzzing around the
perimeter, I wasn't as concerned," Bazin said. "But after (Austin
Czarnik) scored that breakaway, they penetrated more and we started
sagging. So it wasn't a good mix. But you do have to trust your
guys somewhat at this juncture of the season. Sometimes you need
some time to refocus and get down to business. We did that in the
penalty kill and then showed we had 10 percent left that we weren't
using in that third period."
Saturday, Lowell gets a chance for its first trip to the Frozen
Four, one year removed from a 5-win season.
"Hunger. We got a second chance here, and we're not just happy to
be here," Wetmore said. "We worked hard all year to get there. ...
We're just hungry to get out there.
"We have great leadership, even from the freshmen, the amount
they've played. We didn't have the tenacity that we had during the
beginning of the year -- Providence just came in really hungry like
we're trying to be now. If we stick to our game, we'll be
fine."