Points matter! Every game in league play has crucial points on the line and playing a critical rival means you can take points away from them with the win – the proverbial four-pointer. Lots of tight league action this week saw several hard-fought ties and late third period drama across several conference games.
Here is this week’s recap of some great hockey games in the East:
CCC
Endicott won a big road matchup with Salve Regina on Saturday. The Gulls spotted the Seahawks a 2-0 lead in the first period before leveraging an effective power play to rally for a 4-2 win. Jake Simons and Zach Mazur tied the game at 2-2 with the man advantage before Thomas Albert scored his first goal of the season which was the game winning goal. Simons second goal into the empty net sealed the key win for the Gulls. Conor O’Brien earned his tenth win of the season in goal making 27 saves.
Nichols picked up a nonconference win over Connecticut College on Tuesday. The 3-1 win featured 34 saves from goaltender Matt Efros and Justin Perron’s winning goal with just over a minute left in the third period. On Saturday in their return to CCC play, the Bison knocked off Becker 8-2. Vincent Crivello scored two goals and Nichols went 4 for 5 on the power play to cruise to the easy win. Filip Virgili and JB Baker combined for seven assists to lead the offense in the Bison’s first conference win.
Independents
Anna Maria shutout Johnson & Wales 3-0 on Tuesday with Jack Sitzman scoring two goals to pace the offense and Julius Huset made 22 saves to earn the shutout for the AmCats. On Friday, Huset made 35 saves but Brockport’s Jake Colosanti scored with just over three minutes remaining in regulation to give the Golden Eagles a 3-1 win over Anna Maria. On Saturday, Sam Cyr-Ledoux’s third period goal tied Assumption at 1-1 but the Greyhounds scored three times in the final 4-1/2 minutes to down the AmCats, 4-1.
40 saves from goaltender Michael Cerasuolo combined with two goals and assist from Jesse Farabee helped Canton defeat Potsdam 5-3. Over the weekend, the Kangaroos split a weekend series with Fredonia. Friday, Canton used four different goal scorers including Farabee in a 4-3 win over the Blue Devils. On Saturday night, Fredonia earned a split with a 2-0 win earned on a pair of power play goals. Cerasuolo kept the game close for the Kangaroos stopping 38 of 40 shots.
MASCAC
Plymouth State has struggled in nonconference games this season but returned to MASCAC play with a pair of strong wins over Framingham State and Westfield State to move to 7-1-1 in league play. On Thursday night, Mike McPherson scored two first period goals and Jake Sabourin made 28 saves to earn his first win of the season by a 4-1 score. On Saturday, the Panther offense broke out in a big way against the Owls with a 7-1 win. Myles Abbate scored two goals and JR Barone added three assists to help Plymouth State stay firmly atop the conference standings.
Despite being outshot by a 48-18 margin, Framingham State earned their first league win over Worcester State on Saturday. Greg Harney picked up the win making 46 saves for the Rams while three unanswered goals from Ethan Cervonayco, Chris Rupp and Matt Paiotti broke open a 2-2 tie in the 5-2 win.
Fitchburg State moved to 5-1-2 in league play with a 3-1 win over Salem State. After spotting the Vikings a 1-0 lead, Joshua Miller, Rece Bergeman and Anthony Ceolin scored for the Falcons in support of goaltender Brian McGrath who made 33 saves in the win.
NE-10
St. Michael’s rallied from a 5-3 third period deficit on goals from Jeremy Routh and Niall Foster to send the game to overtime. Paul McAuliffe scored his second of the game in the extra session to give the Purple Knights a 6-5 win. On Saturday, the two teams skated to a 2-2 overtime tie. Matt Schreiner’s shorthanded goal in the second period gave the hosts a 2-1 lead but Alex Lester scored with the goaltender pulled for an extra attacker with just 26 seconds remaining to earn the tie.
St. Anselm swept a two-game series with Post with scores of 2-1 and 6-0. After a close game on Friday, the Hawks received three-point games from Anthony Iacullo and Mike Ferraro on Saturday as St. Anselm raced to a 3-0 first period lead and cruised to the win. Nick Howard made 21 saves to earn the shutout.
Stonehill and Southern New Hampshire split their weekend series with the Skyhawks picking up a 4-1 win on Friday behind Matt Schoen’s 41 saves. On Saturday, the Penmen used three power play goals from James Nash, Joe Biddle and Phil Heisse to take the game by a 4-2 score.
NEHC
Babson extended the nation’s longest unbeaten streak to 12 games with a weekend sweep over travel partner Massachusetts-Boston. Friday night goaltender Brad Arvanitis posted a 1-0 shutout for the Beavers stopping all 39 Beacon shots and making Matt Wiesner’s goal stand up for the win. On Saturday, Babson broke out the offense early with five fist period goals that led to a 6-3 win over the Beacons. Andrew Holland scored two goals in the first period including the first of three power play taliies in a span of 31 seconds for the Beavers who move to 7-2-1 in NEHC play.
Southern Maine picked up three points on the weekend with a 2-2 tie with Norwich and a 2-0 win over Castleton. The Huskies were just 40 seconds away from a 2-1 win over the Cadets but gave up Braedyn Aubin’s power play/extra attacker goal in the final minute. On Saturday, USM again took an early 1-0 lead on a first period goal from Tyler Gardiner. Bobby Kinsey scored an insurance goal in the third period and goaltender Anthony D’Aloisio stopped all 17 shots he faced in the win.
NESCAC
After dropping a 4-3 decision to Plattsburgh (more below), Wesleyan went back to NESCAC play and took an important four points with wins over Colby and Bowdoin. On Saturday, Spencer Fox, Liam Donelan and Walker Harris gave the Cardinals a commanding 3-0 lead before Colby’s Logan Clarke scored a power play goal with just three seconds left to spoil Tim Sestak’s shutout bid in a 3-1 game. Sunday afternoon things were a little tighter as again the Cardinals raced out to a 3-0 lead only to see the Polar Bears rally to tie the score in the third period. Spencer Fox scored the game winner with just over five minutes remaining in the period for the 4-3 win that moves Wesleyan to 5-3-0 in conference play.
Amherst picked up their first league wins since opening night with a weekend sweep of Connecticut College and Tufts. On Friday night Dan Dachille stopped all 35 shots he faced, and the Mammoths scored one goal in each period in the 3-0 win over the Camels. Against Tufts, a three goal second period broke open a 1-1 contest on the way to a 5-2 win over the Jumbos. Pieter von Steinbergs scored two goals in that breakout middle frame for Amherst.
SUNYAC
Plattsburgh had a pretty good week playing NESCAC opponents going 2-0-1 in three games. On Tuesday, the Cardinals downed the Wesleyan Cardinals, 3-2 in dramatic fashion. After the teams exchanged goals in the first two periods, Plattsburgh’s Liam Lawson scored the game winning goal with just 45 seconds remaining in regulation. Jimmy Poreda made 23 saves for the win. On Friday against long-time rival Middlebury, the Cardinals raced out to a three-goal lead after 40 minutes of play and held the Panthers scoreless in the third period to earn the 4-1 win. Against Williams to close out the three games with NESCAC, the Cardinals rallied from a two-goal deficit to earn the tie at 2-2. Adam Tretowicz’s goal in the second period cut Williams’ lead in half and Joe Drabin’s power play goal leveled the game late in the third period for the tie.
Buffalo State downed Bryn Athyn 6-3 on Saturday night led by two goals and an assist from defenseman Charles Barber. Zach Remers and Anthony Tulipane also chipped in with a goal and an assist each for the Bengals who moved to 7-6-1 on the season.
UCHC
Elmira has been playing some great hockey and provided a statement win on Tuesday, downing Geneseo 4-2 on home ice. Three goals in the first ten minutes from Connor Powell, Kale Kane and Matthew Cuce set the pace as Chris Janzen made 45 saves to earn the win over the No. 2 ranked Knights. Back to league play for the weekend and Elmira kept the offense going with a 7-2 win over Chatham. Cuce and Powell scored two goals apiece in the win. On Saturday, the win streak came to an end against Stevenson in a 5-1 loss. The Mustangs scored three special teams’ goals and broke open a tight 2-1 game with a three goal third period including two on the power play.
Utica continued their strong play and took Wilkes down from the ranks of the UCHC unbeaten with an 8-3 win. Regen Cavanagh recorded a hat trick for the Pioneers who raced out to a 5-0 first period lead and cruised to the win. On Saturday it was Kasper Kjellkvist’s turn to pick up a three-goal game as the Pioneers routed King’s 10-0 for the UCHC weekend sweep. Kjellkvist scored a natural hat trick with goals in each period that staked Utica to a three-goal lead and his third goal started an eight-goal barrage in the third period for the Pioneers.
Three Biscuits
Brad Arvanitis – Babson – made 39 saves in backing Babson to a 1-0 road win over Massachusetts-Boston on Friday night.
Regen Cavanagh – Utica – scored a hat trick in Utica’s 8-3 win over Wilkes knocking the Colonels from the ranks of the unbeaten in the UCHC.
Julius Huset – Anna Maria – made 22 saves to earn a 3-0 shutout win over Johnson & Wales. The win was Huset’s seventh on the season for the AmCats.
The season is quickly approaching the end of January, so the games are becoming all the more important in battles for standings position and playoff seeding. It is definitely going to be an interesting ride all the way to the end.
