Statistics

BIDDEFORD, Maine -- The No.8 University of New England men's ice hockey team rattled off five unanswered goals in the middle of a 6-3 Conference of New England (CNE) victory against Johnson & Wales University (R.I.) at the Harold Alfond Forum on Friday night (Jan. 30).

Six different players provided the offense for the Nor'easters (14-5-0, 11-3-0 CNE), who won for the fourth straight outing. It was the 10th time in program history that the squad scored at least six goals that were spread evenly between as many skaters.

The hosts never trailed in the contest, after rookie defenseman Seth Murch pocketed his second goal from a faceoff win by Juraj Elias with 1:24 elapsed. While the Wildcats (6-10-1, 4-8-0) managed to tie it 1:24 later, courtesy of Connor Nelson, UNE netted two more before the end of the 1st period to take control. Another successful offensive-zone draw by Ryan Hadland led to a tally by defenseman Jacob Pellerin to establish the lead for good (2-1), and then Dominic Murphy found Nathan Chickering for a power-play stuff at the right post. Five of Chickering's now team-leading nine goals have come on the advantage.

The Nor'easters out-shot JWU by a 22-3 spread during the opening 20 minutes.

UNE survived 62 seconds of a 5-on-3 penalty kill at the start of the 2nd, and then Aidan Curran padded the cushion with an unassisted goal -- his first of the year -- at the 2:22 mark. The visitors put together a good spurt of pressure later in the frame, which prompted one of the best saves of the evening by Harrison Chesney [Watch], and a gutsy four blocked shots on one shift by Chip Hamlett [Watch], to maintain the edge.

Hadland netted one of his own shortly before the 2nd intermission to make it 5-1, swooping in for rebound after a Braxton Powers attempt rang the pipe. Murphy got a second assist in the 3rd when Noah Szretter delivered a slick centering feed through traffic in transition to a wide open Cam Bergeman at the left post. Murphy was ranked 9th in the country in assists per game (0.94) at the start of the day.

Johnson & Wales was able to get a couple back off the sticks of Bret Beale and Nelson, again, but the UNE margin was too large to really challenge.

Chesney wound up with 18 stops for the Nor'easters, who improved their Division III-best penalty kill to 98.5 percent (65-for-66) by wiping away five JWU power-play chances. For the visitors, Jake Inzirillo (47 minutes) and Brendan Flanagan were kept busy between the pipes and totaled 40 and 13 saves, respectively.

The Wildcats will host the teams on Saturday afternoon in Rhode Island.