River Hawks 4, Mavericks 2

Freddy's three thoughts of the game:

1. Out-everythinged: UMass-Lowell beat Minnesota State all over the ice on Friday night. If you had to guess which team was the five-win team last year, you wouldn't have picked the River Hawks. Sure the Mavericks had depth issues on D and again gave up a lot of shots, but it was the lack of hustle and urgency up front that killed them. Lots of sloppiness. Lots of impatience. Lots of turnovers. Not the way you want to play in your home opener.

2. First goals: Mavericks freshman defenseman Zach Palmquist and rookie forward Jean-Paul LaFontaine scored the first goals of their college careers. Palmquist gave the Mavericks a 1-0 lead at the 6:21 mark. LaFontaine made it 4-2 with 3:17 to play after Austin Lee (33 saves) was pulled for an extra attacker. If the scoreboard was correct at the time, LaFontaine's goal was MSU's second shot of the third period. They were outshot 37-27 — 17-11 in the first period and 10-5 in the third.

3. Power outage: The game hinged on Lowell's lone penalty — Josh Holmstrom's five-minute major and game misconduct for checking from behind with 3:06 left in the second period. The Mavericks trailed 2-1 at the time but just couldn't muster much on the power play. It was a primo chance to take over the game again and it just didn't happen. MSU was credited with four shots on goal during the power play, and I saw none during the last two minutes, which were also the first two minutes of the third period.

Deep thought: Norm Bazin won in his coaching debut with the River Hawks, a team that had five wins a season ago and was swept by the Mavericks at Thanksgiving. Bazin, a Lowell grad, was a longtime assistant at Colorado College.

Quote of the night: "We gotta figure it out pretty quick if we're going to compete." — MSU junior forward Eriah Hayes.

Around the WCHA: Michigan Tech 2, Wisconsin 1 (OT) ... Denver 4, Boston College 2 ... Northern Michigan 5, St. Cloud State 2 ... Minnesota 5, Minnesota Duluth 4 (OT) ... North Dakota 3, Maine 1 ... Alaska-Anchorage 3, Nebraska-Omaha 0 (NC) ... Colorado College 3, Bemidji State 1