BOSTON – The Suffolk men's hockey team wrapped up action at the Boston Landing Tournament Saturday afternoon with a 4-2 setback to the tournament hosts Nichols at Warriors Ice Arena.
THE BASICS
SCORE: Suffolk 2 | Nichols 4
RECORDS: Suffolk (4-9-0) | Nichols (7-6-1)
HOW IT HAPPENED
Nichols took advantage early on of a man-up opportunity as Joe Feeney was sent to the box at the 5:25 minute mark for cross checking. Less than a minute into the power play, Matthew Menta and Vincent Crivello split Michael Levine. Menta, who was on Levine's stick side, drew the senior netminder over and slipped the puck over to Crivello, who flipped it over Levine's glove to give Nichols a one-goal lead less than seven minutes into the action.
Just two minutes Curtis Carlson added to the Bison's cushion with a power play goal of his own that put the Rams in a two-goal hole.
Nichols' early goings were enough the remainder of the first frame as the Bison took the 2-0 cushion into the first intermission.
Jack Kelly wasted no time cutting the deficit in half for the Rams. The freshman was set up by LJ Fellows and Sean Montgomery just 49 seconds into the second stanza to pull Suffolk within one, 2-1.
Nichols defense backed up Brett Epp the rest of the second period to keep the one-goal game in its favor as the non-conference clash headed to the second break.
Suffolk turned up the speed in the final period of regulation and the Bison caught the Rams off guard in transition to regain a two-goal margin over the blue-and-gold. Kyle McDonald sniped a shot past Levine nearly six minutes into the third to turn it into a 3-1 Nichols outing.
Feeney kept the Rams in the game as the freshman followed up McDonald's goal with his own 1:50 later to cut the deficit back to one. Jared McCracken and Joseph Mortillaro helped on the freshman's second goal of the season.
Similar to Feeney, the Bison followed up with their fourth goal of the outing a little over two minutes later to push its advantage back to two.
The two-goal distance would be too much ground for the blue-and-gold to make up as Nichols and Epp kept Suffolk off the board for the final 10 minutes to clinch the 4-2 consolation contest.
NETMINDER NOTES
- Levine turned aside 26 shots.
- Epp picked up 23 stops in the victory.
STATISTICALLY SPEAKING
- Six different skaters record one point for Suffolk with Kelly and Feeney each finding the back of the net once. Fellows, McCracken, Montgomery and Mortillaro all dished out one assist.
- The Bison outshot the Rams, 30-25, and won the battle in the face-off circle, 44-33.
NOTEWORTHY
- Suffolk and Nichols met for the 50th time.
- Kelly has recorded goals in back-to-back games.
- Mortillaro is on a two-game point streak in which he has registered two points on one goal and one handout.
POST-GAME PIC
COMING UP
Suffolk ventures to Fitchburg State Tuesday, Jan. 8 for a 7 p.m. non-conference clash at the Wallace Civic Center.