Jan. 12, 2008

Box Score

AMHERST, Mass. - The Babson men's hockey team, ranked 11th in the nation, lost its second game of the year and first in conference play on Saturday, as the Beavers fell to host Amherst College, 6-4, in an ECAC East/NESCAC matchup at Orr Rink.

Amherst came out strong, making the most of its scoring chances early on. Although Babson outshot the Jeffs 17-9 in the first frame, Amherst was able to find the first two scores of the night. Amherst's first goal came when a loose puck in front of the Beaver net was slapped past Babson netminder Skylar Nipps by first-year Matt Rhone (Dedham, MA). To put the Jeffs up 2-0, Amherst converted on its first power play with a score from Keith Nelson (Manalapan, NJ) who was assisted by Will Collins (Edina, MN) and Jack Baer (Edina, MN). The Beavers were able to bring the game to 2-1 when Matt Harrington found the back of the net at 18:25. He was assisted by Tom Maregni and Ryan Ferguson.

The second frame saw both teams pick up their physical play, with five total penalties served. The two teams stayed neck-and-neck with each other, with Amherst finding its third goal of the night and Babson finding its second. The Lord Jeffs' goal came when senior forward Gregg Adamo (Manalapan, NJ) fired a wrist shot past Nipps to make the score 3-1 in Amherst's favor. The Beavers were able to answer when Brad Baldelli finished a feed from John Geverd to end the scoring for the second frame.

The Lord Jeffs came out firing after the second intermission, Baer banged home a loose puck that was assisted by Rhone and Griffin Biedron (Chelsea, MI) just three minutes in. Amherst added its fifth score of the night when senior co-captain Kyle Schoppel (Cambridge, ON) finished off assists from Nelson and Joel Covelli (Carlisle, ON).

Babson cut the lead to 5-3 when freshman Jeff Sullivan scored his first collegiate goal with fewer than 10 minutes to play, but the Beavers were unable to close the gap further. On an empty net, Schoppel and Covelli found Baer for Amherst's final goal of the game. The Beavers capped the scoring when Terry Woods scored in the final minute, but it would not be enough to overcome the 6-4 loss.

Both netminders faced a slew of shots, with first-year Cole Anderson (Sylvan Lake, Alberta) turning away 38 of 42 shots while Nipps stopped 38 of 43 shots.

The Lord Jeffs move to 6-3-2 (3-1-1) on the season after picking up two wins in this weekend's home stand, while the Beavers fall to 8-2-2 (5-1-1).

NOTE: Taken from an Amherst College press release.