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BIDDEFORD, Maine -- Three goals in the opening 3:23 vaulted No.11 University of New England into full control of the scoreboard, as the Nor'easters rolled to a 7-1 Conference of New England (CNE) men's ice hockey victory over Nichols College at the Harold Alfond Forum on Friday night (Jan. 31).

Winners of six consecutive outings, the Nor'easters improve to 13-5-1 overall and 9-3-0 in CNE matches. UNE stays in third place in the league standings with 28 points, as both Curry College (31) and Endicott College (29) have found a similar string of conference wins lately.

Cam Bergeman topped the hosts with his first collegiate two-goal performance. It was the first time Bergeman lit the lamp since becoming the UNE's only first-year to ever begin a season with scores in three straight games.

Dominic Murphy at 1:47 on the power play [Watch], David Wilcox at 3:00 [Watch], Bergeman at 3:23 [Watch], and Bergeman again at 8:37 [Watch] established the Nor'easters with a commanding cushion (4-0) before the midway mark of the 1st period. It also prompted a quick exit by Nichols goalie Nick Anderson, who faced just seven shots.

Joey Stanizzi put up 20 of his saves to hold the visitors off the board for over 37 minutes, including a point-blank denial on Brendan Schmidt early in the 2nd [Watch]. The Bison, who out-shot UNE by a 14-10 margin in the middle frame, were then the only side to score in the period, off the stick of Ryan Austin.

Nick Marino [Watch] and Nathan Chickering on the power play [Watch] upped the spread to 6-1 in the 3rd. Then, with just 4.9 seconds remaining in the night, Ryan Kuzmich capped the Nor'easters' season high-tying offensive goal output of seven. Streaking up the left wing, Kuzmich received the puck as he entered the zone and pulled it to his forehand at the very bottom of the circle to lift one into the far-side corner for his team-leading 15th goal of the year [Watch]. It also marked career goal number 50 and career point 100 in the 97th game for the senior forward, making him the 5th player in program history to reach those respective milestones.
 
Kuzmich entered the contest ranked sixth in Division III for goals per game, and eighth in points per game. He has been on a tear of late, with at least one point in eight straight outings, and at least one goal AND one assist during six of those.

While Bergeman equaled a personal-best with three points, he shared that team-high with linemates Marino and Brayden Cook (3 assists). Ryan Hadland joined Marino with a pair of helpers, and Drew Olivieri, Kevin O'Keefe, Jacob Pellerin, and Joe Sweeney each added one. For Olivieri, who leads the squad with 18 assists on the year, and Murphy, both players have recorded at least one point in six consecutive games.

By cashing in twice on the man-advantage, the Nor'easters are now 9-of-17 over their last five skates. The power play unit, which began the day ranked eighth in the country, has increased its efficiency from 20.5 to 30.4 percent over the recent stretch.

Stanizzi wound up with 29 stops on the way to improving his individual ledger to 8-3-0. O'Keefe and Tyler Healey both provided two blocked shots in support. Dylan Schuett and Hadland combined to win 16 out of 20 faceoffs for UNE, which ended with a 38-22 edge in that department.

The outcome halted a three-game unbeaten run by the Bison, who slip to 8-9-2 and 4-6-2. Backup netminder Liam Choquette had 25 saves for Nichols, which will host the teams on Saturday (4:40 p.m.) to wrap the weekend series.