SOUTH BURLINGTON, Vt. -- Senior Andrew Peabody (Marblehead, Mass./St. Paul's School) returned to his winning ways with 26 saves and four different players scored goals as the Babson College men's ice hockey team pulled away from host Saint Michael's College in a 4-1 win in an ECAC East contest in Cairns Arena on Friday.

Now 6-1-3 since mid-January, the Beavers (9-12-3 overall, 9-5-3 ECAC East) officially secured the third seed in the upcoming conference tournament and will host the yet-to-be-determined sixth-seed in the quarterfinals next Saturday night at 7 p.m. Meanwhile, the Purple Knights slipped to 6-16-2 overall and 3-13-1 in the league.

Freshman Mike Driscoll (Milton, Mass./Boston Advantage) had a goal and an assist for Babson, while three others also tallied goals. Junior Michael Jangro (Reading, Mass./Valley Jr. Warriors) scored for the hosts, and classmate Eric McGuirk (Rehoboth, Mass./Bridgewater Bandits) ended with 26 saves.

Senior Cody Carlson (Peterborough, N.H./Portland Jr. Pirates) broke a scoreless deadlock a at 11:30 of the opening period, while McGuirk made 13 stops to otherwise limit the Beavers. Neither team scored again until midway through the third.

During the second stanza, Babson penalties led to the Purple Knights playing at least one man up for a 3:30 stretch in the middle of the period, but of the seven shots the hosts fired toward the net in that stretch, two hit the pipe and five were stopped by Peabody, including one by junior Josh Geary (Wellesley, Mass./Phillips Exeter Academy) that was heading toward the upper left-hand corner before being snared by the senior goaltender.

Driscoll made it 2-0 at 9:34 of the third period on the power play, but Jangro answered 50 seconds later, deking Peabody out front following a pass from Geary. However, junior Ryan Smith (Lynnfield, Mass./Boston Bulldogs) tallied an insurance marker with 5:58 left, slipping a shot under the left arm of McGuirk, who was prone on his back on the ice. Senior captain Mike Hoban (Medfield, Mass./Saint Sebastian's) added an empty-netter in the final minute to account for the 4-1 final.

Babson wraps up its regular season schedule at first-place Norwich tomorrow at 4 p.m.

NOTE: Portions of this story taken from a Saint Michael's College press release.