BOSTON, Mass. – Three first period goals, coupled with a 42 save performance by ECAC East Goaltender of the Year Jamie Murray earned third-seeded Babson College a 5-2 win over second-seeded men's ice hockey Saturday afternoon in the Beacons Ice Arena in the semi-final round of the 2015 ECAC East Tournament.

The reigning ECAC East Tournament champion Beavers, advance to their third straight championship game, next Saturday and will face the winner of top-seeded Norwich University and fourth-seeded Castleton State College, for a spot in this year's NCAA Tournament.  Babson goes into this year's title game, having won the last two championships, both over Norwich.

Saturday's victory also marked the third straight semi-final win for the Beavers over the Beacons. For UMass Boston they fell to 22-4-1 on the year following the loss, while the Beavers improved to 19-5-3. 

Babson got on the board at 5:07 of the opening period when Andrew Bonazza scored off of a Rob Devaney pass.  Devaney collected the puck off of a turnover in the Beacons defensive end, and found a wide open Bonazza who fired the puck past UMB's Billy Faust (Alta Loma, Calif.) to the high near post.

Three minutes later, the Beacons got on the board, with senior captain Mike Kuhn (Holbrook, Mass.) scoring his 12^th of the year to tie it at 1-1.  Nathan Milam (Westland, Mich.) would find Kuhn after the senior managed to get some room out the Beacons defensive end.  Kuhn would then go one-on-one with Murray, and beat the All-American netminder to the near post.

UMass would continue to pepper Murray, but another Beacons turnover, would result in Babson taking a 2-1 lead.  Jake Donahue would score a laser one-timer from the point to beat Faust to the high far post at the 10:39 mark.

Six minutes later, the Beavers would go on the first power-play of the day, and would waste little time pushing their lead to 3-1.  Charlie Ackerman would find the top corner again, off of a quick pass from Dan Casey.

The Beacons closed out the first with a 13-9 advantage in shots, but were only able to get past Murray once.

In the second, Mike Driscoll gave the Beavers their second power-play goal on a redirect to make it 4-1 at the 9:39 mark.  Joe DiPiertro fired in a shot, with Driscoll standing right outside the crease.  He would time the redirect perfectly to give his team some breathing room.

Trailing by three, the Beacons offense struggled to build any momentum through midway point of the period.  UMass would catch a lucky break, when Colin Larkin (Waterford, Mich.) flicked the puck over Murray's shoulder, where it then landed right over the goal line to cut the Beavers lead in half.  Kuhn and Milam would both be credited with an assist.

With the momentum shifting in favor of UMass, Larkin nearly made it a one-goal affair, but would just miss the puck with Murray struggling to get over to the far post.  Heading into the second intermission, the two teams were even in shots 21-21, but it was the Beavers power-play that proved to be the deciding factor as they were 2-for-2 moving into the third.

After the second intermission, UMass got another huge chance to cut into the Beavers lead.  In the opening minutes of the final frame, the Beacons were able to get a redirect past Murray on the power-play, but that goal was waved off due to a high stick.

Knowing that time was against them, the Beacons offense finally started to fire on all cylinders, but their late push proved to be too little too late, as Murray was locked in and shut down chance after chance for UMass.  Josh Haverstrom (Coral Springs, Fla.) had the best opportunity as he went one-on-one with Murray with 12 minutes left, but his shot was deflected over the goal by the netminder.

The Beavers would seal the victory on an empty-netter by Devaney with 19 seconds left in the contest.

In the final 20 minutes, the Beacons outshot the Beavers 21-3, but were unable to break Murray and the Babson defense.

UMass would finish 0-for-3 on the power-play, with Faust getting his first loss of the year after stopping 19 shots.

With the loss, the Beacons close out the year with a 22-4-1 record.  However there is a chance that the Beacons could receive an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament.  They now have to wait two long weeks, until March 9 when the NCAA announces this year's tournament field.