RUTLAND, Vt.—Junior Jack Riley (Wrentham, Mass.) scored his first collegiate hat trick, to lead UMass Boston men's hockey past host Castleton University 6-3 on Friday night at Spartan Arena. 

THE BASICS

UMass Boston 6, Castleton University 3

(UMass Boston 3-2, New England Hockey Conference 2-1)
(Castleton University 1-4-1, New England Hockey Conference 1-3-1) 

HOW IT HAPPENED

Riley scored the Beacons first, third and fourth goals of the game, including opening the contest with a shorthanded tally. 

Senior Zack Bross (St. Louis, Mo.) added a goal and two assists, to help the Beacons go above .500 for the first time this season. 

Freshman Billy Grant (Mansfield, Mass.) and sophomore Ethan Nitkin (Miami Beach, Fla.) also scored for the visitors.  

Sophomore Nolan Egbert (North Massapequa, N.Y.) made 20 saves on 23 shots to earn his second-straight victory. 

Jason Bilski led the hosts by scoring twice and going 10-19 in the face-off dot. Dom Kuziak scored the other goal for Castleton. 

In net, Brandon Collett and Kyle Alaverdy combined for 41 saves on 46 shots. Alaverdy allowed three goals on 20 shots over the opening 24:06. Collett came on midway through the second period and stopped 24 of 26 shots. 

UMass Boston dominated the first period, outshooting the hosts 15-5, but had to settle for a 1-0 lead. 

Riley scored the lone goal in the period at 10:59, when he took a pass from Nick Albano (Beverly, Mass.) and beat Alaverdy for a short-handed tally. 

The junior doubled the Beacons lead 3:44 into the second stanza. He redirected freshman Ethan Osburn's (Prescott, Ariz.) shot from the point past the netminder for a 2-0 advantage. Chris Peters (Fairport, N.Y.) picked up a second assist on the play. 

UMass Boston went on the power-play immediately after and made it 3-0 just 22 seconds later. Grant rifled in a look from the far circle, off feeds from Daniel Nachbaur (Richland, Wash.) and Albano. 

Castleton took their timeout and quickly righted the ship. Kuziak scored a shorthanded goal at 5:48 and Bilski recorded a power-play goal at 12:50. 

Riley pushed the Beacons lead back to two, when he scored the game-winning goal at 14:27. Freshman Joe Petruzzella (Scottsdale, Ariz.) and Bross registered assists on the goal. 

Bilski capped off the six-goal period at 19:01, when he scored another power-play goal to cut the deficit to 4-3 after 40 minutes. 

Bross scored a crucial insurance goal for the Beacons at 2:19 of the third period. This time it was Jeffrey Skinner (Houston, Texas) and Davis Browning (Dallas, Texas) setting up the goal. 

The Beacons capped off the scoring with an empty-net goal with 17 seconds remaining. Bross passed up an opportunity to shoot, to find a wide-open Nitkin for a 6-3 lead. 

BY THE NUMBERS

• UMass Boston outshot the Spartans 47-23 and held a 43-34 edge in face-offs. 
• The two teams combined for five special teams goals. UMass Boston went 1-5 on the power-play, while the Spartans finished 2-5. Both teams added a short-handed goal. 
• With the win, UMass Boston earned their 12th-straight win over the Spartans. The Beacons lead the all-time series 16-7-2. 
• Friday's game marked Riley's second career multi-goal game and first career hat trick. Riley is just one goal shy of tying his career-high for goals in a single-season (five), despite only playing in three games thus far. 
• Egbert is now 3-0 for his career with 67 saves on 73 shots. 
• Albano recorded two assists in the victory. 

WHO'S NEXT 

UMass Boston will travel to take on #1 Norwich University on Saturday afternoon at 4 p.m.