BOSTON, Mass.—UMass Boston men's hockey scored two goals in a 43-second span and junior goalie Sam Best (Woburn, Mass.) made 30 saves, to help the Beacons earn a 2-2 tie with #6 Hobart College-in a matchup of the two top teams in the New England Hockey Conference standings. 
 
THE BASICS
UMass Boston 2, #6 Hobart College 2
(UMass Boston 12-7-2, NEHC 8-4-2) 
(Hobart College 13-4-2, NEHC 8-2-2) 

HOW IT HAPPENED
 
After falling behind 1-0 early in the second period, senior Chris Peters (Fairport, N.Y.) and junior Dakota Concannon (Warwick, N.Y.) scored at 8:07 and 8:50 of the second, to briefly give the Beacons the lead. 
 
Hobart's Blake Coffey answered with a power-play goal at 14:45 to tie the game and neither team could come away with the go-ahead goal in the third or overtime. 
 
Nolan Barrett (Wayne, N.J.), Jacob Banks (Westminster, Mass.) and Evan Heldt (Sylvania, Ohio) all recorded assists for the Beacons. 
 
Best made more saves with each successive period. The junior stopped seven shots in the first, eight in the second and 11 in the third, before saving all four shots he faced in the extra session. 
 
Coffey led the visitors with a goal and an assist in the tie. PA Martineau also scored, while Chase Bell picked up two assists. 
 
Senior goalie Liam Lascelle made 22 saves for the visitors. He made nine of his 22 saves in the first period. 
 
After a day off due to Winter Storm Keenan, UMass Boston came out firing in the first period and earned a 9-7 edge in shots. 
 
The Beacons had their best chance of the stanza at 8:38. Peters forced a turnover at the blue line of the defensive zone and skated into the zone just ahead of a defenseman. He came in one-on-one with the goalie and tried to lift a backhand shot but Lascelle got a piece of the puck to deny Peters.
 
Hobart took the lead 4:20 into the second period on their third power-play opportunity of the game. Bell sent a pass to Martineau in the low slot and the senior redirected the centering feed past Best for a 1-0 advantage. 
 
The Beacons tied and took the lead on similar looks four minutes later. 
 
On the first goal, Banks sent a pass across the blue line to Peters, who was just getting off the bench, and the senior's slapshot went off Lascelle's shoulder and in for a 1-1 tie at 8:07. 
 
The Beacons took the lead at 8:50. Evan Heldt's shot from the near point went wide of the net and curled all the way around to the far point. Barrett rushed into the zone and teed up a huge slapshot that Concannon tipped on the way through for a 2-1 lead. 
 
UMass Boston kept the momentum going from there and nearly took a 3-1 lead when Gino Carabelli (Shelby Township, Mass.) beat Lascelle but clanged the crossbar less than a minute later. 
 
Hobart tied the game with a second power-play goal at 14:45. Bell fed Coffey at the top of the zone and the senior's shot got through traffic and in for a 2-2 tie. 
 
The Beacons had a tremendous chance to take the lead just after the goal, but Barrett's shot went behind Lascelle but just wide, on a 2-on-1 chance. 
 
Hobart came out firing to start the third period but couldn't solve Best and the Beacons' defense. 
 
In the extra session, Best made a pair of huge saves, first on Hobart's leading scorer-Aaron Maguyon and then on a sprawling save to deny Jonah Alexander. 
 
UMass Boston had a golden chance to win the game with under 10 seconds left in overtime. Andy Walker (Detroit, Mich.) and Michael Krupinski (Dallas, Texas) skated into the zone on a 2-on-1. Walker flipped a pass to Krupinski who's shot tipped off Lascelle's stick and went just wide with under a second left on the clock. 
 
BY THE NUMBERS

• Hobart held a 32-24 edge in shots, while the two sides both won 37 face-offs. 
• With the tie, UMass Boston moves into sole possession of second-place in the NEHC (27 points) and stays one point behind Hobart College (28 points) for first-place in the NEHC standings. The Beacons have four games left, while Hobart has five games to play-due to a postponed gamed against University of Southern Maine earlier in January. 
• The two sides are tied 6-6-3 all-time. Hobart has gone unbeaten in the last six meetings (4-0-2). 
• The Statesmen finished 2-5 on the power-play, while UMass Boston went 0-3. 
• Peters sits first in the NEHC with 20 assists and 30 points. He's also one of 12 players in the conference to have scored 10 or more goals. 

WHO'S NEXT 
 
UMass Boston will take on travel partner Johnson & Wales (R.I.) in a home-and-home series this weekend. The Wildcats will host the Beacons on Friday at 7 p.m., while the Beacons will be in Boston on Saturday at 4 p.m. for Senior Day.