Brian Pouliot finished with two goals and an assist in NEC's playoff win over Southern Maine on Saturday.
Pilgrims Beat Southern Maine, Advance to Semifinals
New England College would net four unanswered goals in the third period to lift them past the University of Southern Maine Huskies 5-2 in ECAC East Quarterfinal action on Saturday. With the win the Pilgrims advance to the ECAC Semifinals and improve to 16-7-3 on the season. The loss drops the Huskies to 14-9-3 overall.
The two teams would battle evenly through much of the first period as the Pilgrims would hold the edge in shots out shooting the Huskies 17-10. Southern Maine would get on the board first with Josh Giordani (Quincy, Mass.) scoring his fifth goal of the season assisted by Zach Joy (Dover, N.H.) and Ryan Jean (Randolph, Maine) at the 16:27 mark. The Pilgrims would answer quickly as Brian Pouliot (Hooksett, N.H.) would score a power-play goal assisted by Mike Mullen (Pittsburgh, Pa.) just 1:29 later to send the game into the first intermission tied at 1-1.
The two teams would continue their even battle into the second period as each team would collect 12 shots on goal. It would be Southern Maine who would break the tie with Jordan Skinner (London, Ontario) scoring on a breakaway with just 10 seconds remaining in the period to send the Huskies into the final period up 2-1.
The Pilgrims would battle back in the third period as Johan Granath (Stockholm, Sweden) would score his sixth goal of the season to tie the game at 2-2 with 12:39 remaining in regulation. Granath would strike again just under two minutes later netting a short-handed goal off a nice pass from Pouliot to put the Pilgrims up 3-2. NEC’s Mark Ehl (N. Vancouver, B.C.) would give the Pilgrims some breathing room netting his team-high 22nd goal of the season at the 15:15 mark and Pouliot would sneak in a short-handed empty netter with 37 seconds remaining in regulation to lift the Pilgrims to the 5-2 victory.
Picking up the win in goal for New England College was Ron Baia (West Haven, Conn.) who finished with 30 saves. Splitting time in goal for Southern Maine was Jamie Gilbert (Lewiston, Maine) who finished with an impressive 27 saves and Ryan Sullivan (Newton, Maine) who stopped 18 pilgrim shots.
The Pilgrims will travel to Norwich University on Saturday, March 8 where they will face Salem State in the ECAC East Semifinals; time is yet to be determined.
