MARLBORO, Mass. – Junior netminder Gregg Hussey (Medford, Mass) made 35 saves and backboned the Becker College men's ice hockey team to a 2-1 victory over visiting Suffolk University for the Hawks in Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference action at the New England Sports Center on Thursday Night.
With the win the Ice Hawks improve to 4-18 overall and pick up their first conference win (1-11) while the Rams dip to 10-11-1 (4-6-1 ECAC) on the season.
The Ice Hawks took the early 1-0 lead with the only marker in the opening frame. With teammate Fred Hein (North Reading, Mass.) off for slashing, Becker sophomore Christopher Pantaleo (Staten Island, NY) sprang junior Tyler Auricchio (Henderson, Nev.) in behind the Rams defense. Suffolk netminder Brandon Smolarek (Chesterfield, Mich.) made the initial double-stack pad save but couldn't control the rebound and Becker senior Cody Edwards (Kansas City, Mo.) tucked home his third goal of the season for a short-handed tally.
The teams traded goals in the second stanza. Suffolk evened the game with 12:44 to play. Sophomore Stanton Turner (San Francisco, Calif.) left a drop-pass at the top left circle for Connor Lawrence (White Plains, NY) to wrist top shelf past Hawks goaltender Hussy. The Hawks would answer with the game-winner, a power-play goal off the stick of sophomore Kyle Godfrey (Geneva, Ill) less than two minutes later. Sophomores Bryan Parsons (Shrewsbury, Mass.) and Nicholas McKee (Bakersfield, Calif.) were credited with assists to build a 2-1 advantage heading into the final frame.
The third period saw lots of back and forth action, but neither team could cross the goalmouth. Hussey's 35 save performance earned him his third win of the season, while his counterpart Smolarek had 23 stops in the loss.
Suffolk outshot the Hawks 36-25 and were 0-for-3 on the power play. Becker was 1-for-4 with the man-advantage.
Both squads return to the ice on Saturday. Becker hosts Curry College at 12:40 p.m. at the New England Sports Center while Suffolk entertains Wentworth in a 7:00 p.m. clash
