NEW BEDFORD, Mass. – Powered by a five-point night from junior left winger
Tyler Stewart, the UMass Dartmouth men's hockey team battled to a 6-4 victory over Framingham State in Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference (MASCAC) action on Thursday evening at Hetland Arena.
The victory moves the Corsairs to 9-8-1 overall and 6-4-1 in conference action and marks the 100th career victory for ninth-year head coach
Erik Noack behind the bench at UMD. The visiting Rams are now 1-14-2 with an 0-9-1 record in the MASCAC.
Framingham State capitalized with three unanswered in the second period to own a 3-2 advantage heading into the final period of play. The Corsairs responded at 4:51 as junior right wing and assistant captain
Kevin Johnston buried a cross pass from rookie left wing
Blake Kashark as he buried it past Rams goalie Liam Kilgallen. Rookie defender
Noah Webster earned the secondary assist.
The Corsairs grabbed the lead at 10:45 as sophomore center
Nolan Wutzke fed the puck to Stewart, who fired it past Kilgallen for the go-ahead score. Sophomore right wing
Alex Walker earned the secondary assist on the play with a quick pass up to Wutzke.
It was a flurry from that point as Walker pushed the margin to 5-3 at 13:38, burying home a pass from the right doorstep by Stewart. Wutzke earned the other assist after a great heads-up pass from the boards found Walker before the pair had a give-and-go in front.
The trio connected once again less than three minutes later as Walker once again drove home a rebound from Stewart for the 6-3 advantage at 16:29. Wutzke nabbed his fourth helper of the night after corralling the puck and sending a backhand up to Stewart in the Corsairs zone.
Framingham State tacked on a final goal at 19:39 as rookie left wing Michael Kennedy collected a pass at the near boards by junior right wing Jerry Duckett, navigating into the zone. Kennedy skated through the slot and sent a shot past the reach of UMD goalie
Graham Burke.
The Corsairs opened the game's scoring with a first period power play goal from Stewart as he fired home a shot from Wutzke and graduate student captain and defender
Cade Hanley at 3:24. UMD made it a 2-0 lead at 4:05 of the second as rookie defenseman
Hunter Scanlon sent a blistering shot past Kilgallen off a cross-ice feed from Stewart.
The Rams went on to net three straight in the second period, paced by sophomore center Scott Bugarin, who had a goal and an assist during the run.
In addition to Stewart's two goals and three assists, Wutzke finished the night with four helpers, going 12-18 from the faceoff circle. Walker had two goals and an assist, while fifth-year center and assistant captain
Michael Mania was 12-27 from the faceoff circle. Burke earned the win in goal, recording 27 stops on the night.
UMass Dartmouth owned a 41-31 advantage in shots for the evening, while the Corsairs also posted 18 blocked shots to the Rams' 11.
The squad returns to the ice on Saturday when it travels to Plymouth for a 6pm conference showdown against the MASCAC-leading Panthers.
