LOWELL, Mass. -- The UMass Lowell Hockey team was defeated by Northeastern, 4-1 in the Hockey East opener on Friday night in front of 5,125 fans at the Tsongas Center.

UMass Lowell drops to 2-3-0 overall, while Northeastern improves to 3-2-0 with the victory.

"I thought Northeastern played well and deserved to win tonight," said UMass Lowell Head Coach Norm Bazin. "We made a little push in the third, but it certainly wasn't enough and we need to play better going forward. Hockey East is a tough conference and they proved that here tonight."

Sophomore forward Connor Sodergren (Tewksbury, Mass.) scored the lone goal for the River Hawks for his first tally of the season at 8:45 of the final period.

Northeastern's Patrick Schule opened the scoring in the game at 6:54 of the first and then added an empty-net tally to complete his two-goal effort in the win for the Huskies. Zach Solow and Grant Jozefek also added goals for Northeastern in third period. Jeremy Davies recorded a game-high three points, all coming via assists.

Junior goalie Tyler Wall (Leamington, Ont.) registered 23 saves in the loss for UMass Lowell, which included nine saves in the second and third periods. His counterpart Cayden Primeau amassed 16 saves for Northeastern in his third victory of the season.

Junior forward Kenny Hausinger (Anchorage, Alaska) managed a team-high three shots on goal for the River Hawks.

UMass Lowell was a perfect 3-for-3 on the penalty kill.

The River Hawks return to action on Saturday, October 27th at Bentley in non-conference play. Game time from Bentley Arena is 7 p.m.