Boston, Mass. - The Suffolk University Hockey team )12-10-3, 8-4-2 ECAC Northeast) rattled off their fifth consecutive victory stopping the Western New England College Golden Bears (3-20-1, 2-12 ECAC Northeast) by a score of 3-2 on Sunday evening.
Freshman Andrew Monesi (Simi Valley, Calif.) put home the game-winner five minutes into the third period converting on a Rams' power-play to help the Rams inch closer to securing the number three seed in the ECAC Northeast Hockey playoffs.
Monesi knocked home a loose puck in front of the net for his sixth goal of the season, and first game-winner.
Junior netminder Jeff Rose (Collinsville, Conn.) stopped 15 of 16 shots in the third period to notch his eleventh win of the season between the pipes for the Rams. Rose made a total of 31 saves in the game.
The Rams jumped out to an early 1-0 lead in the first as junior Paul Weisser (Longmeadow, Mass.) pushed home a loose puck in front of the Golden Bears' net for his eighth goal of the year. Suffolk pushed the lead to 2-0 as senior Niles Moore (Columbus, Ohio) knocked in a rebound off a Monesi shot for his team-leading 14th goal of the year three minutes into second period.
The Golden Bears would come back answering twice to even the game in the third period. Sophomore Joe Deptula (Anchorage, AK) evened the game at 2-2 early in the third converting off feeds from sophomore Kory Grahl (San Diego, Calif.) and sophomore Rory Hansen (Noblesville, Ind.).
WNEC got on the board in the second period as freshman Blake Lucier (Scarborough, Me.) converted a Golden Bears' power-play for his second goal of the year at 16:27 in the second.
The game was not without drama as the Rams were tagged for a penalty with a little over a minute and a half remaining in regulation. With the extra attacker the Golden Bears decided to pull freshman goaltender T.J. Faste (Hamden, Mass.) for the extra attacker. Suffolk's penalty-killing unit would prove to be too strong as the Rams did not allow a shot on the power-play.
Faste was strong in the net for WNEC making 33 saves in the game.
Suffolk held the advantage in shots in the game at 36-33.
The Rams will now wait for the rest of the ECAC Northeast Hockey regular season to end before the playoff pairings will be announced later in the week.