NEW BEDFORD, Mass. – The UMass Dartmouth men's hockey team scored a goal in each period to kick off the 2026-27 season with a 3-1 victory over Roger Williams on Friday night at Hetland Arena. The Corsairs move to 1-0 overall with the Hawks slipping to 0-1 on the young season.
 
The Corsairs opened the game's scoring at 13:57 of the opening period as sophomore Brogan Shea scored a shorthanded marker for the first UMD goal of the season. The visitors answered in the second period, tying things at 1-1 at 1:02 as John Hoins connected off a feed from Daxton St. Hilaire.
 
UMass Dartmouth senior captain and center Nolan Wutzke responded five minutes later as he banked home a pass off the stick of sophomore winger Chris Cardillo on the power play for the 2-1 lead.
 
In the third period of play, the Hawks worked to get the puck in the net past the reach of junior Ethan Labbe as two shots were stopped by the netminder with two other blocked by the defense. In the end, the Corsairs got an empty net goal from sophomore winger Levee Pakozdi with seconds remaining for the two-goal lead and the game victory.
 
In addition to the goal, the Corsairs saw Wutzke go 10-16 in the faceoff circle, while sophomore center Kailin Chen had two shots and a team-high 11-21 mark in the circle. Sophomore defender Alex Pagliari led the way with four blocked shots with junior blueliner Brennen Pecararo posting three blocks on the night.
 
Labbe earned the win for UMass Dartmouth, recording 30 saves on the night, including 11 in both the first and second periods.
 
The Corsairs are right back in action on Saturday, traveling to Westfield State for a 5:35pm tilt against their former conference-rivals.