Sophomore Brian Chambers (Weymouth, Mass.) netted the third-period, game-winner to lift the No. 7 seeded UMass Lowell hockey team (9-8-1) to a 2-1 victory at No. 2 Boston University (10-4-1) in the 2021 Hockey East Quarterfinals on Sunday.

With the victory, the River Hawks have now won six of their last seven quarterfinal appearances and are headed to the Hockey East Semifinals for the 19th time overall. They’ll take on Boston College, which held off the University of New Hampshire, 3-2 on Sunday.

“We’re excited about the win,” said Head Coach Norm Bazin. “It was a hard-fought battle. All the guys competed very hard. I thought our third period was our best period. This is a great time of year to be playing. We get to live to fight another day here, so we’ll concentrate on taking some time off and coming back on Wednesday.”

As a team, UMass Lowell dominated on the puck possession, and outshot BU, 29-17. Sophomore Matt Brown (Wood Ridge, N.J.) also added a goal in the victory. Freshman Henry Welsch (Lakeville, Minn.) totaled 16 saves, including 10 in the second period, to earn his first career post-season decision. Drew Commesso registered 27 stops for the Terriers in the loss.

Both sides came out on the attack to open the game, with a goal for each side in the first five minutes. The Terriers got on the board first just over two minutes into play, as Dylan Peterson skated the puck along the boards and over the blue line before dishing to Jamie Armstrong, who was crashing towards the far post for the finish.

The River Hawks answered right back at 4:30, though, when junior Jon McDonald (Livonia, Mich.) fired a slap shot from just outside the left circle that found Brown’s stick for the deflection on net. The visitors kept the pressure on, putting a total of 12 shots on goal in the first period, but the teams went into the locker rooms knotted at 1-1.

Although UMass Lowell outshot BU once again in the second, it was the Terriers who took a slight, 10-6 edge in chances on goal. However, Welch and the River Hawk defense held steadfast to keep the stalemate intact.

The physical, hard-fought battle continued into the third and final period with both sides looking for a break. It came at 8:19 in favor of the River Hawks, when junior Reid Stefanson (Winnipeg, Manitoba) chipped the puck away from the boards and over towards sophomore Andre Lee (Karlstad, Sweden) for the redirect towards an oncoming Chambers, who wound up from inside the near circle for the goal.

BOSTON COLLEGE 3, UNH 2

With BC leading 3-0, the Wildcats battled back and scored two second-period goals but fell just short as the University of New Hampshire men’s hockey team was defeated by No. 1 Boston College at Conte Forum in the Hockey East Quarterfinals.

The No. 9 seeded Wildcats conclude the season 6-14-3 overall, while the No. 1 seed Eagles improve to 17-4-1.

Alex Newhook found the back of the net for the Eagles after he picked up the puck off a bounce off the boards from behind the net to give BC a 1-0 lead at 5:35 of the first period.

Mike Hardman chipped the puck in off a rebound at 7:30 to increase the BC lead to 2-0. Nikita Nesterenko one-timed the puck right in front of the net at 8:25 to extend the BC lead to 3-0.

Junior Eric MacAdams (Salem, Mass.) buried the puck to get the ‘Cats on the board at 6:22 of the second period as he skated down the slot and wristed the puck home. Senior Kohei Sato (Nishitokyo, Japan) tapped the puck to MacAdams for an assist as junior Ryan Verrier (Reading, Mass) also notched an assist on the goal.

Less than two minutes later at 8:56, MacAdams dangled around a BC defender and sent the puck to freshman Luke Reid (Warmen, Saskatchewan) who was able to wrist the puck to the right side of the goal and bring the ‘Cats within one of the Eagles. Freshman Cam Gendron (Hampstead, N.H.) also posted an assist on the goal.

UNH outshot BC by a 15-12 margin while the Wildcats went 0-0 on the power play and the Eagles went 0-1.

Mike Hardman had an opportunity to net his second of the game at 16:26 of the third but senior goalie Mike Robinson of Bedford made a toe save to keep the ‘Cats within one goal of the Eagles.