There’s not too much to say about this game than to point out that UMass was pretty much dominated in all aspects.  Shots, special teams, faceoffs.  In every way the River Hawks were the better team.  And while hats are off to the Hawks for the win and their improved play on the season, UMass really has no one to blame for the loss but themselves.  After showing effort and resiliency on Friday night to come back and gain a tie against Maine, they showed neither of these things at the Tsongas Center last night.  The team looked tired, disinterested, and listless.

Just when you thought the team had turned a corner and was building towards something this weekend happened.  While it was nice to see them come back on Friday and gain the tie with the Black Bears that still doesn’t make up for the fact that they disappeared for long stretches in the first two periods that allowed them to go down by two goals in the first place.  This Maine team is pretty dysfunctional right now and there really wasn’t any excuse to concede a point to them.  In Lowell UMass looked like they didn’t even want to be there.  For the weekend we saw a power play, which had been among the best in the league, go 0 for 12 while mustering only 9 shots with the man advantage.  After putting up 37 shots on Friday they could manage just 16 last night, almost twenty less than the home team.

The team took two huge steps backwards this past weekend and has pretty much undone the good they generated in the prior two weekends.  It may not be Thanksgiving yet, but things are not in UMass’ favor when it comes to any kind of success in Hockey East this season.  Despite playing the second most league games so far the team is now in an 8th place tie with Maine.  Their power play has sunk from second best to 6th.  Team defense and penalty kill are second worst.  It might be a benefit that the team will get right back on the ice quickly after last night’s disaster.  Tuesday they’ll head up to Vermont to play the annual Turkey Tuesday matchup.  There they’ll look to show that this past weekend was only a hiccup.  If they end up giving the Catamounts their first league win however, I think a lot of UMass fans will be wondering if the three game win steak was more of a hiccup than the norm.

Fear The Triangle Player of the Game – Steve Mastalerz
It seems a little odd to give the POTG to a goaltender who let four goals in.  However he did make 30 saves in just his third game and unlike a lot of the guys in front of him, gave full effort for the entire 60 minutes.

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Here’s the game recap from the Republican.