FRAMINGHAM, Mass. – Powered by four goals over the final two periods of play, the UMass Dartmouth men's hockey team defeated Framingham State, 4-2 in Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference (MASCAC) action on Saturday evening at Loring Arena. The Corsairs move to 4-1-0 overall and 2-0-0 in conference play, while the Rams slip to 1-5-0 with an 0-2-0 mark in the MASCAC.
It was the homestanding Rams that opened the scoring in the first period, taking advantage in the final 45 seconds on the power play as a pass in from senior forward Ashton Collazo found its way in front to sophomore forward Brady Rossbach. Centering in front, he buried a shot past Corsairs goalie
Graham Burke for the 1-0 lead. Senior defender Devante Dixon earned the secondary assist on the play.
The Corsairs answered in the second period as sophomore left winger
Nolan Wutzke scored at 4:51. Taking the faceoff in the far circle, sophomore center
Collin Patterson won it back behind him to Wutzke. Navigating down the far boards, Wutzke sent the puck back into the middle and it slid in for the equalizer past junior netminder Liam Kilgallen.
UMass Dartmouth went on to take the lead at 16:29 in the frame as a wrap around pass from the far boards by junior right winger
Vincent Nicosia found rookie left winger
Blake Kashark at the near boards. Centering the puck, Kashark chipped it into the mid-slot as junior defender
Hank McDonough was there to bury it in for the 2-1 advantage.
Framingham State was unable to solve Burke for the remainder of the frame, but found a solution early in the third period when sophomore forward Scott Bugarin came in on a breakaway in the UMassD zone. He fired a shot in on Burke that was initially saved, but the puck squirted out and into the net for the 2-2 tying goal. Junior forward Samuel Larkin earned the lone assist on the score.
Five minutes later saw Patterson once again, grabbing the go-ahead goal at 5:02. Graduate student defender and captain
Cade Hanley earned the secondary assist, corralling the puck in the Corsairs zone as he zipped it over to Wutzke at the near boards. After Wutzke sent it across ice, Patterson navigated into the Rams zone, firing a blistering shot in past the goalie.
UMass Dartmouth made it a 4-2 advantage at 10:48 as junior defender and assistant captain
Lane Ruffner stopped the puck from going deep into the Corsairs zone, chipping it up to sophomore center
Connor Little. Skating into the neutral zone, Little fired it left to a speeding Stewart who navigated into the Rams zone. He sent a shot in on the goalie that banked off Kilgallen's chest as Stewart buried the loose puck.
Late in the game with the 6-on-5 advantage, the homestanding Rams nearly scored to pull within one, but the officials waived it off, declaring a no-goal with no time remaining to conclude the game.
In goal, Burke earned the victory, recording a career-high 41 saves, including 14 in the second period and 15 in the third stanza. He improves to 2-1-0 on the season, earning his second straight win. On the other end, Kilgallen shouldered the loss, recording 21 saves on the night.
UMass Dartmouth returns to action on Tuesday when it travels to Worcester for a 7:30pm game at Assumption University.
