NEC Men’s Ice Hockey Captures First Win of the Season
HENNIKER, N.H.—New England College men’s ice hockey picked up their first victory of the season topping the visiting Fitchburg State University Falcons 5-3 Tuesday evening.
With the win the Pilgrims improve to 1-1-1 on the season, while the loss drops the Falcons to 0-2-1 on the season.
New England College would get on the board 8:14 into the opening period as Ben Maclaughlin (Beverly, Mass.) would take advantage of a Pilgrim power-play netting his first goal of the season, assisted by Ben Souders (Downington, Pa) and Cheyne Matheson (Wheatley, Ontario).
Fitchburg would knot the game at 1-1 just four minutes later as Joseph Caveney (Fitchburg, Mass.) would net a power-play goal of his own assisted by Trevor Lawler (Fitchburg, Mass.) and Justin Quinn (Braintree, Mass.).
The Pilgrims would close out the opening period with another score from Maclaughlin who put in a pass from Kyle Manlow (Murrette, Calif.) giving NEC the 2-1 lead heading into the first intermission.
New England College would build a 4-1 lead early in the second period thanks to scores from Samuli Turunen (Joensuu, Finland) and James O’Reilly (Charleston, S.C.). Fitchburg would battle back netting two goals of their own in the final 3:24 of the period, including scores by Sean Loebs (Cresskill, N.J.) and John Celli (Leominster, Mass.), heading into break trailing just 4-3.
The two teams would battle through a scoreless final period of play before NEC’s Johan Qvarfordt (Sodertalje, Sweden) would tack on an empty-netter with 28 seconds remaining in regulation.
The Pilgrims finished the game out shooting the Falcons 50-27.
Picking up the win in net for NEC was Sebastian Anderson (Sundyberg, Sweden) who finished with 24 saves. In net for Fitchbug was Randy Wolcott (East Haven, Conn.) who recorded 46 saves on the evening.
NEC returns to action on Friday, Nov. 9 when they travel to take on ECAC East opponent Skidmore College. Fitchburg will host MASCAC foe Framingham State on Tuesday, Nov. 13.
