BOX SCORE

BABSON PARK, Mass. - Sophomore goalie Andrew Peabody (Marblehead, Mass.) earned his fourth career shutout with a 29-save performance as the Babson College men's ice hockey team opened its 2009-10 season with a 2-0 victory over visiting Colby College at the Babson Skating Center on Friday night. The Beavers are now 1-0-0 overall and 1-0-0 in the ECAC East, while the Mules start off at 0-1-0 overall and 0-1-0 in the NESCAC.

Colby outshot Babson by a slim 13-11 margin in the opening period, but Peabody turned away all 13 attempts, including one shot that he blocked off the left post early in the game. Meanwhile, the Beavers broke through against Mules' junior goaltender Cody McKinney (Weston, Fla.) at 14:41 of the first, as senior Corey Griffin (Hingham, Mass.) took a feed from classmate Chris Sabo (Wellesley, Mass.) on the left side and lifted it into the upper right corner for the game's first goal. First-year Matt Leer (Edina, Minn.) also had an assist on the play - his first collegiate point.

Babson made it 2-0 at the nine-minute mark in the second period, when sophomore Cody Carlson (Peterborough, N.H.) collected the puck off junior Jeff Sullivan's (Quincy, Mass.) faceoff win in the left circle and wristed it inside the right post for his first of the year at 7:59. Sullivan was credited with an assist on the play.

Colby had a golden opportunity to get on the board when a Babson penalty gave the Mules a five-minute powerplay at 13:14 of the second. However, the Beavers' penalty-kill unit held the visitors to just one shot during that stretch as they maintained their 2-0 advantage.

Babson would fight off two more penalties in the third period and Peabody would turn away eight more shots as the Beavers held on for the 2-0 shutout victory.

McKenney finished 31 saves in net for Colby, including 12 in the final period.