BOSTON – Quoting Kurt Russell in the Disney movie “Miracle,” UMass Lowell coach Blaise MacDonald stated that “Great moments come from great opportunity,” and the River Hawks had a few of those tonight.

The River Hawks beat Boston University, 4-1, in front of a crowd of 4,116 despite being outshot 42-24, and only having limited opportunities.

Offense wasn’t the only story of the game for the River Hawks. UML net minder Carter Hutton had a huge game with 41 saves.

River Hawk coach Blaise MacDonald was very impressed with his team’s overall effort in tonight’s contest. Hutton was the backbone to the River Hawk success, sparking confidence in his teammates.

“He was terrific,” said MacDonald. “He provided the underbelly of confidence that a young team needs. He did a nice job of sealing the bottom of the net. We need that type of goaltending to beat such a tremendous team.”

Going into tonight’s game the seventh seed’s all-time record in the quarterfinals was 1-37-1, the River Hawks improved that to 2-37-1. On the eve of possible history Hutton and his teammates try to keep that out of their minds and focus on only the game at hand.

“We try not to look at that kind of stuff,” Hutton said. “We just kind of worry about what’s in front of us. Every night is a challenge so I think we don’t really worry about what seed we are, we just worry about playing our game and getting better at every game.”

Like last night’s contest UML set the pace early with an early power play goal. At six minutes and 52 seconds into the first, UML co-captain Ben Holmstrom beat Terrier net minder Karson Gillespie for an early 1-0 advantage.

About four minutes later UML padded their lead when River Hawk forward Kory Falite fired a shot from the right circle that beat Gillespie.

The action continued in first when Hutton turned away Terrier two on one bid.

With UML controlling the momentum the forwards made a strong push into the Terrier end and it paid off when defenseman Barry Goers slid a beautifully placed pass on the tape of Paul Worthington ( goal, two assists) who wasted no time in slapping the puck past Gillespie to put the River Hawks on a comfortable 3-0 lead.

BU coach Jack Parker wasn’t pleased with his team’s effort in the first period and gave credit to how UML played.

“Last night I said I wasn’t pleased with my team’s effort after the first period, but tonight I was pleased with my teams effort after the first period,” Parker said. “We just couldn’t put it by Hutton. Your not going to win too many games when you only score one goal and that had a lot to do with how hard they played us down low and how well they killed our power plays.”

At the beginning of the second period Brett Bennett replaced Gillespie in the BU net.

The Terriers scored there lone goal at 10 minutes and 17 seconds in the period when Bryan Ewing fed line-mate Chris Higgins in front of the net for Higgins’ 13th goal of the season.

The rest of the game belonged to UML goaltender Carter Hutton. Hutton stopped 14 shots in the second and a barrage of 20 in the third; most coming toward the end of the period when BU had an empty net.

The River Hawks’ pressure got to the Terriers deep in their own zone when Patrick Cey intercepted a pass in front of the Terrier net and fired a shot that beat Bennett top shelf.

BU was without defenseman Eric Gryba, who suffered a MCL injury in Friday night’s game, and Colin Wilson who sprained his right knee and might play in tomorrow night’s contest.

Game 3 is tomorrow night in at the Agganis Arena. UML can make history if they win tomorrow being the only seventh seed to ever win a series in the Hockey East Tournament.

Ryan Fleming can be reached at [email protected].