BOX SCORE
WATERVILLE, Maine – The Babson College men's ice
hockey team built a 5-1 lead through two periods and then withstood
a late Colby College charge as the Beavers held on to defeat the
Mules, 5-4, in an ECAC East/NESCAC contest on Friday night. With
his team's season-opening victory, head coach Jamie Rice '90
became the third coach in program history to reach the 100-win mark
in his career.
A total of 11 Babson players recorded points in the victory, led
by sophomore forward PT Donato's (Arlington,
Mass.) one goal and two assists. Junior Mike Hoban
(Medfield, Mass.) added a pair of assists for the Beavers,
while junior Dan Ahern (Melrose ,Mass.), senior
captain Jason Schneider (Littleton, Mass.),
first-year Ben Kravitz (Huntington, N.Y.), and
senior Ryan Smith (Lynnfield, Mass.) each
contributed goals in the victory. Sophomore Zeke Testa
(Wellesley, Mass.) played the entire 60 minutes in net for
Babson, finishing with 31 saves.
Colby was paced by Michael Doherty and Scott Harff, who each
recorded one goal and one assist, and Billy Crinnion, who chipped
in with two assists. Cody McKinney played all but 44 seconds in net
for the Mules, making a total of 37 stops.
Babson came out firing, outshooting the hosts 18-10 in the
opening period while jumping out to a 2-0 lead. Kravitz netted the
first goal of his collegiate career off feeds from Hoban and senior
captain Terry Woods (Duxbury, Mass.) at 12:15, and
Schneider later converted assists from Donato and first-year
Connor Berto (Lake Forest, Ill.) at 17:49.
The Beavers continued their offensive onslaught in the second
period, as Hoban fed Smith just 1:39 into the session and Donato
later tacked on his team's fourth goal off assists from
first-years Shayne Anderson (Dorchester, Mass.)
and Ryan Heavey (Andover, Mass.) at 9:45. Colby
finally broke through against Testa when Michael Smigelski scored
at 13:21, but Ahern tallied the eventual game-winner on a powerplay
off assists from Donato and junior Cody Carlson
(Peterborough, N.H.) just 22 seconds later.
Trailing by four heading into the final period, the Mules made
things interesting by scoring a pair of goals in the first six
minutes. Wil Hartigan scored at 1:07 to make it 5-2, and Harff
added a powerplay goal at 5:56 to cut the Beavers' lead to
just two. Colby would later pull McKinney in favor of an extra
skater in the final minute, enabling Doherty to score the
Mules' fourth goal with 16 seconds remaining in the game, but
Babson would hold the hosts without a shot in the final moments to
hold on for the 5-4 victory.
The Beavers will complete their season-opening road trip
tomorrow afternoon, when they head to nearby Brunswick to take on
Bowdoin College at 4 p.m. Meanwhile Colby will host UMass-Boston at
3 p.m.
