WELLESLEY, Mass. – Playing in their first road game of the young season, UMass Boston Men's Ice Hockey fell to Babson College, who is ranked eighth nationally, 5-2, at the Babson Skating Center on Friday night.
THE BASICS
UMass Boston 2, Babson College 5
UMass Boston (1-4-0, 1-2-0 NEHC)
Babson College (3-1-0, 2-1-0 NEHC)
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Beacon offense would come out aggressive against senior goalie Nolan Hildebrand to the tune of six shots, three of which would reach Hildebrand in net, during the opening two and a half minutes of the first period. But it would be Babson that got on the scoreboard first when freshman forward Mike Stevens put the puck behind senior goalie
Sam Best in net for UMass Boston after a feed from junior forward Thomas Kramer to make it 1-0 about 14 minutes into the game.
Less than two minutes later, the Beavers would tack on another goal as freshman forward Danny Cavanagh and senior defenseman James Perullo teamed up for the second Babson goal of the contest, doubling up the Beacons, 2-0, after one period of play.
Freshman forwards Ian Driscoll and Egan Schmitt would add two more goals to the scoresheet for the Beavers with assists coming from sophomore forward Wyatt George and graduate forward Max Torrez respectively in the second period, making it 4-0 Babson after two periods. Schmitt would add an assist to his resume early in the third period, hitting Kramer for the fifth Beaver goal of the evening.
But the Beacons would fight back down the stretch as freshman forward Mike Manzo, who entered the game with three assists this season, scored his first goal of the season on a pass from fellow freshman forward Jazz Krivtsov. Exactly three minutes later, freshman forward Grady Friedman scored his fourth goal in five games for UMass Boston to cut the deficit down to three, 5-2, which would be the final score of the contest.
BY THE NUMBERS
- Sam Best made 21 saves against Babson out of a potential 25 shots he faced before graduate goalie Liam Murray played the third and made two saves in net
- Nolan Hildebrand recorded 27 saves on 29 attempts by the Beacons in the victory
- Grady Friedman has now scored in three consecutive games for UMass Boston while Mike Manzo has recorded a point in three consecutive games
- The loss snaps a two-game winning streak for the Beacons against Babson College after sweeping them 5-4 and 4-3 in both games last season
WHO'S NEXT
UMass Boston rounds out their two-game road trip with a Saturday afternoon matchup against University of Southern Maine at 4:00 PM in Gorhan, Maine. Prior to the 2-1 loss in their last matchup, the Beacons won their previous seven head-to-head games against the Huskies.
