HENNIKER, N.H.—UMass Boston men's hockey scored four special teams goals to earn their first New England Hockey Conference win of the season, a 5-2 victory over host New England College on Saturday afternoon at Lee Clement Arena. 
 
THE BASICS
UMass Boston 5, New England College 2
(UMass Boston 2-1-1, NEHC 1-0-1)
(New England College 2-1, NEHC 1-1) 

HOW IT HAPPENED
 
The Beacons scored three power-play goals and added a short-handed tally to finish off a 3-point weekend to being NEHC play. 
 
Freshman Ty Matthews (Auburn, Mass.) potted his first two collegiate goals and added an assist to lead the Beacons. 
 
Sophomores Owen Bourdow (Saginaw, Mich.) and Corey Clifton (Matawan, N.J.) each added their first collegiate goals and senior Ethan Nitkin (Miami Beach, Fla.) recorded a goal of his own. 
 
Senior Chris Peters (Fairport, N.Y.) set up all three of the Beacons' power-play tallies. 
 
In net, Sam Best (Woburn, Mass.) moved to 2-0-1 on the season with 29 saves on 31 shots. 
 
David Novotny and Tim Lopez each scored for the hosts who suffered their first setback of the season. 
 
Spencer Kozlowski made 29 saves on 34 shots to fall to 1-1 on the year. 
 
UMass Boston opened the scoring late in the first period, when Nitkin took feeds from Matthews and Peters and lit the lamp at 15:58. 
 
The Beacons doubled their lead even later in the second stanza. With UMass Boston on the penalty kill, Ryan Rowland (Manahawkin, N.J.) found Bourdow and the freshman beat Kozlowski for a short-handed tally at 18:57. 
 
New England College got back into the game with a power-play goal at 5:50 of the third. Lopez took passes from Alex Laplante and Hunter Hall and beat Best for a 2-1 deficit. 
 
UMass Boston answered right back with another power-play tally. This time it was Matthews off feeds from Peters and Joe Petruzzella (Scottsdale, Ariz.) at 7:29. 
 
New England College cut the deficit back to one at 13:43. Jhuwon Davis sent a backdoor pass to Novotony to cut the Beacons lead to 3-2.

UMass Boston doubled their lead with one final power-play goal at 15:38. Peters found a streaking Matthews for a one-timer goal to make it 4-2 in favor of the visitors. 
 
Clifton tacked on an even-strength tally at 18:01 to close out the scoring. 
 
BY THE NUMBERS

• UMass Boston outshot the Pilgrims 34-31 but New England College earned a 32-27 advantage in face-offs. 
• With the win, UMass Boston improves to 21-34-2 all-time against New England College and snapped a three-game road losing streak against the Pilgrims. The two sides faced off in the 2019-20 NEHC Quarterfinals, with New England College picking up a 4-1 win. 
• The Beacons scored four of their five goals on special teams. UMass Boston went 3-7 on the power-play, while New England College ended the day 1-8. 
• Matthews is the first Beacon to record two power-play goals since Zack Bross ('20) posted a pair of power-play goals in the Beacons win over the University of Southern Maine on January 24, 2020. 

WHO'S NEXT 
 
UMass Boston will host the University of Southern Maine on Friday at 7 p.m. in their 2021-22 home opener.