During their toughest stretch of the season, the Suffolk Univeristy Hockey team (10-10-3, 6-4-2 ECAC Northeast) are playing their best hockey as they have now picked up three huge conference wins in seven days as they continue their climb up the ECAC Northeast standing. After defeating nationally-ranked Curry College 3-2 in overtime last Saturday, and stopping 13th-ranked Wentworth College, 4-2 on Thursday the Rams headed to Dudley Mass. to take on Nichols College, who entered the game as the third ranked team in the ECAC Northeast.
The Rams had their best offensive showing of the year scoring seven time to roll past the Nichols College Men's Hockey, 7-1 Saturday afternoon at home. The conference loss brings Nichols record to 12-8-2 and 6-5-0 in the conference. The win puts Suffolk's record at 10-10-3 and 6-4-2 in the conference.
It was a defensive struggle to start the game as neither team had a shot until four minutes into the game. Suffolk got on the board first when Andrew Monesi (Simi Valley, Cali.) took a shot from the top of the left point that deflected to Andrew Flynn (Stamford, Conn.) at the right post. Flynn tried to stuff the puck home, but the puck held still on the goal line where Joe Greene (Weymouth, Mass.) came in and put the puck in the net. Suffolk held a 1-0 lead after the power-play goal. They had a 6-3 shot advantage over the Bison in the first period.
The Rams opened up their lead with two more goals late in the second period. Pat Welch (Dorchester, Mass.) skated into the left side of the offensive zone and slid a pass across the ice intended for a teammate, but before it got there it was deflected by a Nichols defender into the net with 3:33 left. Then 1:01 later Jason Molle (Stoneham, Mass.) took the puck out of the defensive zone on a breakaway, put a deke on the goalie and slid it five-hole to make the score 3-0.
In the third period Suffolk quickly put the game out of reach for the Bison. They scored four goals in the period while Nichols scored one. Zach Barron (St. Louis, Missouri) opened up the third period scoring with a breakaway goal with 11:48 on the clock. J. Andrew Wein (Barnegat, N.J.) scored next on a wrap-around shot and Robbie Donahue (West Bridgewater Mass.) made the score 6-0 with a wrist shot at 9:24 remaining. Zach Kohn scored the Bison's lone goal with a quick shot from just inside the blue line beating the goalie blocker side. Paul Weisser (Longmeadow, Mass.) finished the scoring off with a breakaway, shorthanded goal with 6:36 remaining in the game.
Zach Kohn (Hartland, Wisc.) scored the lone goal for the Bison
in the third period bringing his season total to 16 goals and 41
points.
Nichols had 32 total shots in the game, while Suffolk had 29
shots. Nichols was 0-5 on power-plays while Suffolk scored two
short-handed goals and was 1-4 on power-plays.
Suffolk will be back in action on Wednesday as they travel to Becker College to take on the Hawks at 8:00pm.
(game recap courtesy of Nichols College Sports Information)