Sophomore Brandon Smolarek (Chesterfield, Mo.) made 30 saves to record his first career shutout as Suffolk earned its first conference playoff berth in four years with a 4-0 ECAC Northeast ice hockey victory over Wentworth Saturday afternoon at Steriti Rink.

With the win, the host Rams (9-14-1, 6-7-1 ECAC Northeast) clinch the fifth seed in the upcoming league championships, which begin with quarterfinal round play next Saturday.  Suffolk will travel to fourth-seeded Johnson & Wales for that outing next weekend, as the Wildcats can finish no higher in the league standings despite having two regular season games remaining.  The visiting Leopards (11-12-2, 9-5 ECAC Northeast) will be seeded either second or third in this year's tournament, as Wentworth must wait for the result of tomorrow's Johnson & Wales-Salve Regina contest to learn its seed.

After a scoreless opening period, senior Charlie McGinnis (Hanover, Mass.) gave the Rams the only goal they would need on a delayed penalty call 1:11 into the second stanza on a feed from freshman Stanton Turner (San Francisco, Calif.), and junior Andrew Ball (Brick, N.J.) extended that margin to 2-0 nearly eight minutes into the final frame with his second career tally that came on the power play.  Empty-netters off the sticks of sophomores Carmen Mastrangelo (Wellington, Fla.) and Mike Cherpak (Enfield, Conn.) in a 46 second span late in the contest accounted for the final score.

McGinnis finished with a goal and an assist in the triumph for Suffolk, which also received a pair of assists for Turner as well as single helpers off the sticks of junior Tim Benedetto (Peabody, Mass.) and sophomore Connor McCarthy (Hanover, Mass.).  Smolarek took care of the rest in net for the Rams, as he made nine saves in the opening period, 10 in the second and 11 more in the final 20 minutes of play to post the shutout and snap the Leopards' seven-game win streak in the series that dated back to February 11, 2010.  Sophomore Joel Miller (Calgary, Alta.) made 16 stops in suffering the setback in goal for Wentworth, which outshot Suffolk by a 30-20 margin for the contest.

Ironically, Suffolk's last post-season appearance also came against Johnson & Wales in the 2010 ECAC Northeast quarterfinals, as the Wildcats won that match-up by a 3-1 final.  Complete pairings for the 2014 ECAC Northeast Championships will be announced following the conclusion of the league's regular season schedule on Tuesday evening.