Penalties were plentiful in the opening minutes of the first period. The Spartans got their first power play on a UMass Lowell hooking penalty, but were unable to capitalize, despite many scoring opportunities. The River Hawks then had to switch up formations once again when they were called for an interference penalty a minute later, leaving them outnumbered 5-3.

Luckily for UMass Lowell, the Spartans were yet again unable to capitalize on the power play and senior forward Jagger Joshua was called for a boarding penalty to negate the two-man advantage.

“I really liked the way we started,” Head Hockey Coach Adam Nightingale, who picked up his first home win, said. “We were down 1-0, no one panicked. We stuck to what we are and I thought we took some penalties and changed the flow of the game a little bit, but I'm really proud of the guys.”

MSU finally broke through at the 14-minute mark thanks to graduate student forward Miroslav Mucha, who busted out his first and second goals as a Spartan back-to-back. In fact, the goals were 42 seconds apart to first tie the game and then give MSU the 2-1 lead.

Even better for Mucha, he got to do it in front of his family who flew in from Slovakia.

“It's awesome especially when your parents come,” Mucha said. “I’m very grateful that it happened and it was a lot of good efforts out there and guys played really well and I was lucky to get rewarded.”

Not even a minute later graduate student defenseman Christian Krygier added to the score with a shot from just beyond the right face-off circle that found its way to the back of the net in the final minutes of the first period. Freshman forward Karsen Dorwart was credited with the assist.

After regrouping in the locker room between periods, the River Hawks came out strong. Graduate student forward Filip Fornåå Svensson cut MSU’s lead to one with a goal just 49 seconds into the second period. 

Both teams once again played physically for the remainder of the period, but neither was able to build off its previous scoring. 

To start the third, UMass-Lowell once again game out swinging. This time it was freshman forward Scout Truman who put the puck in the net less than a minute into the third period to tie it at 3-3.

Despite giving up a 3-1 lead, the Spartans didn’t give up.

While on a breakaway, sophomore forward Tanner Kelly was pulled back by a River Hawks defender who was called for the penalty, granting him a penalty shot. Kelly didn’t waste any time and raced against his defender before carefully maneuvering the puck around him and into the net at the last possible second, putting MSU up 4-3 with just under nine minutes left to play.

The River Hawks swapped their goalie for a sixth player in an attempt to score in the final minute of the game, but the Spartan defense held it together, the buzzer sounded and MSU remained victorious.

St. Cyr only made 19 saves, but it was enough for him to earn his first victory as a Spartan on home ice.

The Spartans remain home at Munn Ice Arena tomorrow night for the second and final game in the series with the River Hawks.