Posted: Feb 15, 2012
Sophomore Trent Krueger's (White Bear Lake, Minn.) goal with 45 seconds remaining lifted Western New England to a 4-3 ECAC Northeast ice hockey victory over Suffolk Wednesday evening at Walter Brown Arena.
Krueger converted feeds from sophomore Brian Prost (Parma, Ohio) and freshman Adam Bristol (Carmel, Ind.) on the game-winner for the visiting Golden Bears (13-11, 8-5 ECAC Northeast), who rallied from an early 2-0 deficit to take a 3-2 lead with just under eight minutes in the second stanza on sophomore Dan Monahan's second tally of the contest. Junior Robbie Donahue (West Bridgewater, Mass.) evened matters for the host Rams (2-21, 0-13 ECAC Northeast) with 2:02 to play in the middle period, and score remained deadlocked until Krueger's late heroics for Western New England.
Sophomores David Seidel (Greenwich, Conn.) and Charlie McGinnis (Hanover, Mass.) had given Suffolk its early two-goal advantage by tallying in the first 7:58 of action, but the visitors forged a 2-2 draw after the first 20 minutes of play on markers off the sticks of Monahan and senior Mike Kaselouskas (East Longmeadow, Mass.), who also collected an assist to join Monahan with two points on the night for the winners. Sophomores Dave Tavella (East Longmeadow, Mass.), John Kelly (Staten Island, N.Y.), Rance Vukovic (Lansdale, Pa.), Alan Martin (Monson, Mass.) and Cam Napolitan (East Longmeadow, Mass.) each recorded single helpers in the triumph for the Golden Bears, while McGinnis and Donahue each notched a goal and an assist for the Rams, who also received helpers off the sticks of junior Dan Feyock (Johnstown, Pa.), sophomores Wes Bonnell (Flenton, Del.) and Chris Boyd (Milford, Mass.) as well as freshman Tim Benedetto (Peabody, Mass.).
Sophomore Eric Sorenson (Fairport, N.Y.) picked up the win in goal for Western New England with a 26-save effort, while freshman Brett Roman (Rock Tavern, N.Y.) made a career-high 39 stops in net for Suffolk as the Golden Bears outshot the Rams by a 43-29 margin for the contest.
Suffolk hosts Becker in its season and ECAC Northeast finale on Saturday afternoon at Steriti Rink in Boston's North End beginning at 4:00 p.m., while Western New England entertains Nichols in its regular season ECAC Northeast finale on Saturday evening at Smead Arena in Springfield, Mass. beginning at 7:00 p.m.