CHARLESTOWN, Mass. – Suffolk men's hockey made a late comeback, but No. 9/10 UMass Boston used an insurance goal and an empty netter to down the Rams, 6-3, Saturday night at Emmons Horrigan O'Neil Memorial Rink.
THE BASICS
SCORE: Suffolk 3 | No. 9/10 UMass Boston 6
RECORDS: Suffolk (2-5-0, 0-4-0 NEHC) | No. 9/10 UMass Boston (7-0-0, 6-0-0 NEHC)
HOW IT HAPPENED
UMass Boston scored the first three goals of the contest to gain an early three-goal edge. Tyler Sifferlen opened the scoring at the midway point of the first to put the visitors ahead 1-0 heading into the first intermission. Daniel Nachbaur stuck just 1:16 out of the locker room before Zack Bross connected on the powerplay for the 3-0 advantage.
Joe Vingi erased the shutout at the 8:32 minute mark with help from Mikhail Bryan and Joe Feeney. The two-goal game was not present for long, however, as Jeffrey Skinner scored on the powerplay, the Beacons' second man-up marker of the contest, to regain a three-goal, 4-1, margin for the visitors.
Suffolk came out of the second break deteremined and scored a pair of goals within 37 seconds of one another to make things interesting. Matt Bucher found the back of the net first at the 7:03 minute mark with Brian Brooks following up to cut the deficit to 4-3.
The Rams comeback was stymied by Sifferlen's score of the day, which came with 2:43 left on the clock and Ethan Nitkin's empty net goal with just 1:04 to play sealed the 6-3 win for UMass Boston.
NETMINDER NOTES
- Michael Levine put together an impressive 42-save effort in between the pipes for the Rams.
- Bailey MacBurnie made 10 stops in net for the Beacons.
STATISTICALLY SPEAKING
- UMass Boston outshot Suffolk, 46-13, and won the clash in the face-off dot, 30-25.
- Brooks, Bucher and Vingi all scored for Suffolk.
- Bryan, Connor Henry, Feeny, LJ Fellow and Miller Rubin all collected one assist in the outing.
NOTEWORTHY
- Suffolk and UMass Boston renew a rivalry, meeting for the 16th time overall and first since 2014.
- Feeney extended his point streak to two with one goal and one assist to his credit over the last two meetings.
POST-GAME PIC
LOOKING AHEAD
After taking a week's rest for the Thanksgiving holiday, the Rams head out on the road for two-game NEHC road trip at Castleton and Norwich. Suffolk will first visit the Spartans Friday, Nov. 30 before venturing to the Cadets the following day Saturday, Dec. 1.