NORTH ANDOVER -- No ruby slippers for the 12th-ranked UMass Lowell hockey team Friday night.

Merrimack 1, UML 0

Instead the River Hawks had to click their boot heels together and say three times: "The streak is over. The streak is over. The streak is over."

Three different streaks came to an abrupt end in their 1-0 loss to unranked Merrimack in front of a sellout crowd of 2,489 at the Volpe Center.

The River Hawks' 11-game unbeaten streak, the second-longest active streak in the nation, ended. So did their seven-game unbeaten streak on the road, their longest ever as a Division I team and longest in more than 30 years.

And despite having eight power plays, including a pair of two-man advantages, their streak of consecutive games with a power-play goal also came to a halt after scoring 11 goals in the previous seven games.

Sam Marotta stopped 25 UML shots, and freshman Justin Hussar scored the game's only goal midway through the third period.

It was the eighth 1-0 loss in school history, second this season and fourth in the last two winters. But coach Norm Bazin said those setbacks don't sting more than a loss by any other score.

"A loss is a loss," he said. "We had more than enough chances to win tonight, but I guess we weren't as sharp as we needed to be and the puck didn't bounce our way.

"It was a well-played game both ways.


There weren't any odd-man rushes either way and their goalie didn't give up any rebounds."

The setback dropped UML's record to 14-8-2 and 8-7-2 in Hockey East, leaving the River Hawks in sixth place. The Warriors, who began the night tied with UML for fifth, improved to 11-10-5 overall and pulled into a tie for fourth place with Providence at 9-6-2.

Doug Carr stopped 26 of 27 Merrimack shots, including blocking a rebound shot by Rhett Bly with his skate at the left post in the early moments of the third period. But he couldn't keep the Warriors off the scoreboard forever.

Hussar beat Carr through a screen with a shot from the left circle at 7:40 of the third period. The River Hawks managed just four shots in the third period despite having three power plays, including two in the final 21/2 minutes and a two-man advantage for 10 seconds.

The River Hawks' inability to win faceoffs during their eight power plays came back to haunt them. Merrimack won 44 of the game's 75 faceoffs, including most of the important ones.

"That was a contributing factor," Bazin concurred. "You have to be better on the man-up because that can win you a game. We'll have to improve on that quickly."

The River Hawks play at Maine on Sunday.

Bazin pulled Carr in favor of a sixth skater when the River Hawks went on a power play with 2:24 left in the game and then had a brief two-man advantage with 34 seconds left. The Warriors hit the post of the empty net with one of their icings, giving the River Hawks life, but they couldn't capitalize.

Merrimack outshot UML 14-10 in the first period, but neither team generated much in the way of top-grade scoring opportunities.

Merrimack's best opportunity might have come in the final minute when Mike Collins, Hockey East's leading scorer, found himself with the puck all alone in front of the net and patiently waited for Carr to commit himself. But Carr stayed on his skates and kept forcing Collins around the perimeter until he no longer had a shooting angle.

Nothing changed in the second period, either, although both teams played much of it along the boards and kept the puck out of the middle of the ice. The River Hawks had a two-man power play for 59 seconds midway through the period, but their inability to win faceoffs prevented them from getting anything established offensively as they kept having to go back to their own end and retrieve the puck.

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