BOSTON – Senior Patrick Harper and freshman Trevor Zegras had three-point nights and freshman Ashton Abel earned a shutout in his first home start as the Boston University men's ice hockey team posted a 5-0 home victory over No. 12 UMass Lowell on Friday evening at Agganis Arena.
 
All five goals came in the third with freshman Ethan Phillips breaking the scoreless deadlock at 6:47 of the period. Ignited by a Lowell major penalty, the Terriers went on to add four power-play goals to roll to the victory.
 
Harper tallied two power-play goals and an assist while Zegras notched BU's first power-play tally before assisting on the next two. Freshman Robert Mastrosimone, celebrating his 19th birthday, capped the productive third with a late marker to complete BU's 4-for-7 night with the man advantage.
 
Abel stopped all 17 shots he faced to pick up his second win in as many starts. 

BU improves to 9-8-5 overall and 6-4-4 in Hockey East play while UML falls to 13-7-4 with a 7-4-3 conference mark.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED

• BU put together an impressive opening period but had nothing to show for it except a 15-4 shot advantage.
• The Terriers had the first two power-play opportunities of the game early in the second period but were unable to get on the board.
• UMass Lowell's lone chance of the night on the power play came later in the middle period but mustered just a single shot on goal over the two minutes.
• A play in transition resulted in the first goal of the game as freshman Robert Mastrosimone advanced the puck into the UML zone up the right side and eluded the defense to get the puck back before finding classmate Wilmer Skoog, who did a quick fake before finding Phillips with a cross-slot pass that he converted from the left circle to send the home crowd into a frenzy.
• Less than two minutes later, with the Terriers already skating on a power play, UML's Connor Sodergren elbowed junior David Farrance in the head and was sent to the locker room via a major and game misconduct.
• Zegras scored on the ensuing 5-on-3 power play, collecting a pass at the foot of the right circle before curling around the left slot, where he snapped a shot past UML netminder Tyler Wall at 8:46 of the second for a 2-0 lead. 
• Harper put the game out of reach for the River Hawks with back-to-back goals later on during the major power play, beginning with a tally from nearly the same spot as Zegras at the 11:34 mark.
• With just three seconds left in the major, a rebound off a Patrick Curry shot went right to an all-alone Harper at the inner edge of the right circle, where he buried a top-shelf shot for a 4-0 lead.
• The Terriers got one more chance with the man advantage and put the finishing touches on the win with another tic-tac-toe passing effort from the Phillips-Skoog-Mastrosimone line, resulting in Mastrosimone's fifth goal of the season.

GAME NOTES

• In all, six Terriers had multi-point performances, which was the most since the season-opening victory at Union.
• The Terriers more than doubled up the River Hawks in shots, holding a 35-17 advantage.
• BU went 4-of-7 on the power play and successfully killed off UML's lone chance with the man advantage.
• This was the second time this season that BU had five goals in a period, also performing the feat in the middle stanza of the season opener at Union.
• BU has now handed UMass Lowell its past two shutout losses (previous was 3-0 contest in opener of 2019 Hockey East quarterfinals on 3/15/19).
• This was the Terriers' most decisive shutout victory since a 7-0 triumph over Maine on Nov. 18, 2017.
• BU last scored four power-play goals in a game on Jan. 30, 2015, when it put up six in a 9-5 home win over Massachusetts.
• Zegras now has four three-point efforts thus far in his rookie season.
• This was Harper's 10th multi-goal game as a Terrier.

UP NEXT

• The two teams will wrap up their home-and-home series on Saturday (Jan. 25) in Lowell.
• The game, which will be televised on NESN, starts at 6 p.m.
• BU will attempt to earn its first weekend home-and-home sweep in over two years.