NEW BEDFORD, Mass. - Backed by three goals in the third period, Babson College posted a 4-1 win over UMass Dartmouth in Little East Conference (LEC) action on Friday at Hetland Arena. The Beavers - ranked 10th-nationally in the latest USCHO.com Poll - move to 11-2-2 overall and 6-1-1 in conference play, while the Corsairs are now 8-6-0 with a 3-4-0 mark in the LEC.
Locked in a 1-1 tie after the opening two periods of play, the visiting Beavers found their rhythm in the final frame as a goal from sophomore right wing Evan Brown at 7:52 gave Babson the go-ahead tally. It was a tic-tac-toe goal that saw Brown bury a pass from senior center Egan Schmitt, who was initially fed on the right side by junior winger Jimmy Fallon.
The visitors added to their advantage less than two minutes later as senior winger and captain Ryan Murphy collected a feed from classmate and center Ian Driscoll, firing a shot from the circle that banked in past the reach of Corsairs goalie
Graham Burke at 9:23.
Babson added an empty net goal at 18:41 as senior center Cam Joslin broke up a Corsair pass in the Beavers zone, tipping it up to classmate and winger Mike Stevens as he battled two defenders to ping it into the open goal.
The Beavers opened the game's scoring at 4:46 of the second period as a shot from the top of the circle by sophomore defender Raphael Marcoux caromed off the pads of Burke and rebounded out to junior winger Joseph Kramer for the 1-0 advantage.
UMass Dartmouth answered at 15:54 of the second, netting a power play tally as senior left wing and assistant captain
Tyler Stewart collected a feed from rookie winger
Chris Cardillo and fired a shot in on senior goalie Nate Mueller. The Beavers netminder made the stop but the puck rebounded and slid into the goal for the score. Senior winger
Vincent Nicosia earned the secondary assist with a nice pass to Cardillo through the neutral zone.
Rookie center
Kailin Chen paced the effort in the circle, going 10-5 on the night, while junior winger and assistant captain
Nolan Wutzke was 8-6 overall. Senior captain and defender
Lane Ruffner recorded a game-high six blocked shots while Burke notched 40 saves in the Corsairs goal - posting 13 stops in the first, 17 in the second and 10 in the third.
UMass Dartmouth returns to action on Saturday afternoon, hosting the University of Southern Maine in Little East action at Hetland Arena. Puck drop is set for 4:30pm.
