Box Score MANCHESTER, N.H.—After falling behind 2-0 early, #5/9 UMass Boston men's hockey scored six consecutive goals, to earn a 6-4 win over host St. Anselm College Friday night.
THE BASICS
#5/9 UMass Boston 6, St. Anselm College 4
(UMass Boston 11-2-1, 7-0-0 New England Hockey Conference)
(St. Anselm College 6-4-1, 4-3-1 New England Hockey Conference)
HOW IT HAPPENED
In their first NEHC Conference game in over a month, the Beacons fell behind 2-0 less than 14 minutes in, only to turn the game on its head in the second period. The Beacons scored four goals in the opening 10 minutes of the second and added a goal each in the first and third, to move into first place in the newly formed conference.
Junior Zach Lindsay (Egg Harbor Township, N.J.) and sophomore Colin Larkin (Waterford, Mich.) paced the Beacons with a goal and an assist apiece. Senior Matt Lemire (Townsend, Mass.) paced the Beacons with a team-high two assists, while freshmen Bryan Carter (Hudson, Mass.) and Mike Thomson (Reading, Mass.) each scored their first collegiate goals in the win.
Senior Mike Miller (Wrentham, Mass.) and freshman Garrison Sanipass (Northbrook, Ill.) also found the back of the net for the Beacons.
In net, Zach Andrews (Coral Springs, Fla.) earned the win by making 17 saves on 19 shots over the final 40 minutes of the contest. Fellow senior Billy Faust (Alta Loma, Calif.) gave up two goals on nine shots in the first period.
Mark Meads scored twice for the hosts, who were playing their first game since December 10. CJ Blaszka and Brendon Kerrigan also potted goals in the loss.
Colin Soucy and Shane Joyce combined to make 25 saves on 31 shots, with Joyce taking the loss after playing the opening 26:44.
UMass Boston dominated the opening two frames, but struggled to get anything going against Joyce.
Kerrigan scored the game's opening goal just 26 seconds into the contest, when he scooped up a rebound off a blocked shot and beat Faust for a 1-0 lead.
Meads made it 2-0 at 13:45, as the Hawks used the momentum from a successful penalty kill to score just moments later.
Carter and the Beacons' fourth line combined for a goal at 16:32, to turn the tide in favor of the Beacons. Lindsay fed Carter at the blue line and the freshman rifled a shot through traffic for his first collegiate goal.
UMass Boston tied the game just 48 seconds into the second thanks to a penalty on the Hawks. With the power-play unit out to start the second period, Lemire and Larkin opened up the defense, before Sanipass roofed a shot home to tie the game at 2-2 48 seconds into the second.
Larkin put the Beacons ahead at 6:04 of the period, with Lemire and Frankie DeAugustine (Pittsburgh, Pa.) recording assists. UMass Boston made it 4-2 just moments later, with Miller blasting a shot past Joyce at the 6:44 mark. Seniors Andrew Crawford (Medford, Mass.) and Derek Colucci (North Scituate, R.I.) picked up assists on the play.
The Beacons capped off their strong start to the second period with one final goal, as Thomson scored at 9:53 off a feed from Brett Mason (Rowley, Mass.).
Lindsay capped off UMass Boston's scoring for the day at 3:10 of the third period, with Jeremy Finger (Orlando, Fla.) recording an assist. The assist marked the first point of the season for Finger, who had missed nine of the previous 10 games due to injury.
St. Anselm finally stemmed the tide with a power-play goal at 7:11 and cut the deficit to 6-4 on a Meads goal with 4:04 remaining in regulation. Andrews came up huge from there though, as he stopped four shots in the final four minutes to keep the Beacons perfect in conference play.
BY THE NUMBERS
- With #4/7 Babson College (6-0-1) tying New England College 2-2, UMass Boston moved into sole possession of first-place in the NEHC with their 7-0-0 mark.
- The Beacons outshot St. Anselm College 31-26 for the game. UMass Boston dominated the first two periods (27-12), before the Hawks outshot the Beacons 14-4 in the third.
- UMass Boston ended the day 1-for-6 on the power-play, while the Hawks went 1-for-3.
- The win marked the Beacons' sixth-straight win over St. Anselm and gave them the lead back in the all-time series at 24-23-1.
- All four lines scored at least one goal in the win, with the defensive corps also adding a goal and two assists.
WHO'S NEXT
UMass Boston will look for a weekend sweep on Saturday, as they travel to New England College for a 4 p.m. puck drop.
