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BIDDEFORD, Maine -- Joey Stanizzi racked up a career-high 39 saves as the University of New England men's ice hockey team stormed past No.11 Plymouth State University, 5-0, in the mutual season-opener on Friday night (Nov. 1) at the Harold Alfond Forum.

For the Nor'easters (1-0), the blowout was the fourth-largest against the nationally-ranked opponent in program history. UNE bounced back from last year's 5-1 setback in the opener at PSU -- when the Nor'easters came in ranked fifth and the Panthers at No.12 -- and that was after consecutive years of UNE knocking Plymouth State out of the NCAA Championship in both 2021-22 and 2022-23.

The hosts scored all five goals during a 20-minute span from the mid-1st period to the middle of the 2nd. Dominic Murphy netted a personal-best two goals to begin his second campaign, while Ryan Kuzmich and Drew Olivieri notched three points apiece and Jayden Price added two assists.

Murphy was first on the score sheet with the help of Olivieri and Kuzmich [Watch], before rookie Cam Bergeman made it 2-0 before the 1st intermission off a feed from Price and Anthony Sciucco [Watch].

Five minutes into the 2nd frame, Kuzmich upped the cushion to 3-0 by stealing the puck in the defensive zone and going the distance for the five-hole goal [Watch], which prompted the exit of Panthers starting netminder Brandon Shantz.

The Nor'easters then struck on the power play, as Olivieri tracked down a rebound in the corner and ushered it to Price, who hit a cutting Jacob Pellerin in the slot for a wrist shot under the crossbar [Watch]. Murphy capped it off with 9:44 remaining in the middle stanza [Watch], stuffed home a juicy point-blank rebound just three seconds after Olivieri won an offensive zone faceoff to Kuzmich, who immediately caromed a shot off the right pad of PSU goalie Connor Strobel.
 
The Panthers out-shot UNE by a 30-11 spread the rest of the way, but could not solve Stanizzi and the Nor'easter defense, which supported the cause with 14 blocked attempts from nine different players on the night. The win for Stanizzi was his 10th in 11 career starts, and the shutout was his third.

For Plymouth State (0-1), Strobel wound up with 14 saves and Shantz had 12.

The Nor'easters kick off Conference of New England (CNE) play next Friday at Western New England University, before the home-and-home shifts to Biddeford on November 9 (7 p.m.).