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Senior Day Ceremony Photos & More
BIDDEFORD, Maine – Five different players found the back of the net as #9 University of New England defeated Western New England University, 5-3, in Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) men's ice hockey matchup at the Harold Alfond Forum on Saturday.
Unbeaten in their last 10 outings (9-0-1), the Nor'easters finish the regular season at 18-5-2 overall and 16-4-1 in the CCC, good for the third seed in the conference tournament. UNE will host sixth-seed Wentworth in the first round on Wednesday with a 4 p.m. puck drop.
Western New England (7-17-1, 5-15-1 CCC) is the fifth seed and will visit Salve Regina in the other opening-round matchup.
UNE got off to a fast start with three goals in the first period.
Noah Szretter blasted a shot from the high slot past the Golden Bears' goaltender 5:04 into the night to open the scoring [
Watch].
Ryan Kuzmich and
Jared Christy assisted on the goal.
Garrett Devine put back the rebound off a shot by
Collin Heinold to extend the lead at the 13:03 mark [
Watch].
Alex Sheehy also provided help. On a rush by the Nor'easters,
Aidan Curran left the puck for
Kevin O'Keefe near the top circle. O'Keefe found
Dawson Ellis open on the opposite side for a one-timer to put UNE in front 3-0 late in the frame. [
Watch]
Just 75 seconds into the second period,
Daniel Winslow got in the way of a pass by the Golden Bears near their own blue line and
Logan DiScanio touched the loose puck back over to Winslow who scored his team-leading 15th goal of the year to make it 4-0 [
Watch].
Western New England broke into the shutout with a shorthanded goal by Jordie Morgan with 4:23 to play in the frame, only to see
Chip Hamlett knock in the first goal of his Nor'easter career and restore the four-goal cushion for the hosts with 52.4 left in the second period [
Watch]. The duo of Kuzmich and Christy each provided their second assists of the night.
Conor Leach staged a small comeback for Western New England with two goals during the initial portion of the third period. He redirected a shot 20 seconds into action for the first tally, and added another on a floating shot from the blue line with 11:14 to play.
UNE outshot the visitors by a 44-28 margin in the contest. For the Nor'easters,
Joe Stanizzi had 13 saves over the opening two periods, and
James Corcoran had 12 stops in the third. Anthony Aureliano made 39 saves for the Golden Bears.
Jake Fuss,
Chad Merrell
