BOSTON, Mass.—UMass Boston men's hockey erupted for four goals in the first eight minutes of the third period, to blow past the University of Southern Maine 9-3 on Friday night at the Edward T. Barry Ice Rink.

THE BASICS

UMass Boston 9, University of Southern Maine 3

(UMass Boston 9-8-1, NEHC 5-5-1)

(Southern Maine 5-10-3, NEHC 4-6-2)

HOW IT HAPPENED

The Beacons scored at least two goals in every period, to snap a three-game New England Hockey Conference (NEHC) losing streak.

Junior defenseman Nick Albano (Beverly, Mass.) led the charge in the victory by tying his career-high with four points. He recorded two goals, two assists and finished +5 on the day.

Junior Zack Bross (St. Louis, Mo.) added two goals in the win and also finished 11-16 in the face-off dot.

Nolan Redler (Winchester, Mass.) chipped in a goal and an assist and Jeffrey Skinner (Houston, Texas) tacked on two assists.

Seniors Tyler Sifferlen (North Andover, Mass.) and Daniel Nachbaur (Richland, Wash.) and junior Jack Riley (Wrentham, Mass.) also scored in the victory.

In net, freshman Sam Best (Woburn, Mass.) earned his first collegiate victory by making 20 saves on 23 shots.

Cody Braga, Adam Papayoanou and Derek Tillotson all scored for the visitors, who saw their two-game NEHC unbeaten streak (1-0-1) come to an end.

Sophomore Peter Ciccarelli took the loss after stopping 24 of 31 shots over the first 44:17. Senior Paul Léger came on for the final 15:43 and made 12 saves on 14 shots.

UMass Boston earned a 2-0 lead after the first period, after capitalizing on their two best chances of the stanza.

Albano gave the Beacons a 1-0 edge at 4:14. The junior defenseman skated with the puck across the length of the blue line, doubled back and uncorked a wrister that Ciccarelli never saw through a pair of screens.

The Beacons doubled their lead at 9:56 off a great individual effort from Andy Walker (Mason, Mich.). The freshman muscled a Huskies defenseman off the puck in the neutral zone, corralled the puck in the low slot and then left a no-look feed for Redler-who shoveled a backhand shot past the netminder.

The second period was a wild back-and-forth affair, with the two teams combining for six goals and seven penalties.

UMass Boston took a three-goal lead on three separate instances, only for the Huskies to answer back each time.

With the Beacons leading 5-3 going into the third period, Southern Maine took a penalty after the final buzzer sounded, to give the Beacons their first power play.

After a too-many players on the ice call gave the Beacons a 5-on-3 edge, Bross rifled home a one-timer, off a feed from Albano 1:43 into the period.

Sifferlen made it 7-3 at 4:17 of the period and UMass Boston put the game away after drawing a 5-minute major call.Riley and Bross scored within 26 seconds of each other to give the Beacons a six-goal lead 7:25 into the final period. 

BY THE NUMBERS

• UMass Boston led Southern Maine 45-23 in shots, thanks to a 19-1 advantage in the third period. UMass Boston also held a 47-28 advantage in face-offs.
• Albano has now recorded four points in a game on four occasions. Friday night's game was his first two-goal and four-point game of the year.
• The Beacons finished 3-6 on the power-play, while Southern Maine ended the night 2-4.
• Sifferlen scored his first goal of his senior season in the win. Dakota Concannon (Warwick, N.Y.) earned his first collegiate point (an assist) on the Sifferlen goal.
• With the win, UMass Boston improved to 22-19-1 all-time against Southern Maine. The Beacons have won six-straight against the Huskies and outscored USM 17-4 in two meetings this year.
• Best has now made 20 or more saves in three-straight games. In his past two starts, Best has stopped 40 of 44 shots.
• UMass Boston improved to 9-0 this season when scoring five or more goals.
• With his four-point night, Albano moved into third-place in program history for career points by a defenseman (75). He trails only All-Americans Tyler Bishop ('17) and Bill Innocent ('92) who finished their careers with 88 and 81 points. 

WHO'S NEXT

UMass Boston will take on New England College on Saturday afternoon at 4 p.m. The Pilgrims earned a comeback 6-3 win over UMass Boston on November 15 in New Hampshire.