BABSON PARK, Mass.—Sophomore Dan Casey (Chatham, N.J.) scored the go-ahead goal at 15:32 of the second period and junior goaltender Jamie Murray (Scituate, Mass.) stopped 24 shots, as No. 6 USCHO.com/No. 7 D3hockey.com Babson College held on to defeat visiting Elmira College, 2-1, in non-conference men's ice hockey action on Sunday afternoon at the Babson Skating Center.

By starting the season with eight straight victories for the second consecutive season, Babson (8-0-0) matched the program's best start since 1975. Elmira, which has now dropped three straight games, falls to 2-4-1 overall.

Sophomore Michael Phillips (Richmond Heights, Ohio) also scored for the Beavers. Juniors Mike Vollmin (Wilmington, N.C.) and Jared Wiedemann (Pembroke, Mass.), sophomore Tim Searles (Chesapeake, Va.) and first-year Rob Devaney (Reading, Mass.) all chipped in with one assist apiece in the win.

The teams combined for 22 shots in a fast-paced first period but went to the intermission deadlocked at 0-0 after stellar play by both Murray and his counterpart, senior Ryan deMelo (Brampton, Ontario) of Elmira. Murray stopped all 10 shots he faced, including a pair of saves on a Soaring Eagles power play midway through the stanza. deMelo turned away 12 shots, two of which came consecutively on Searles and Wiedemann with a little over six minutes to go in the period.

After deMelo made four early stops and Elmira generated just one shot on its second power play of the game, the Beavers broke through with the game's first goal at 8:12 of the second period. After cycling the puck in its offensive zone for over a minute, Phillips took a pass from Wiedemann and blasted a shot from the point that squirted through deMelo to give the Green and White a 1-0 lead.

The Soaring Eagles struck back just over two and a half minutes later, taking advantage of a power play to tie the game at 1-1. First-year Nick Okada (West Chester, Ohio) slid a pass along the blue line to sophomore Nick Owen (Methuen, Mass.) who ripped a slap shot past Murray for his second goal of the year at the 10:37 mark. The Beavers responded though, as Casey notched his fifth tally of the season, tucking in a feed from Searles at the left post to put the hosts ahead for good with 4:28 left in the second period.

The Green and White outshot Elmira 15-7 in the final period and had two great opportunities to extend its lead but was denied by deMelo. First-year Charlie Ackerman (Bradenton, Fla.) had his shot on an odd-man rush pushed aside with a pad save just 3:58 into the stanza, and junior Jimmy Magrath's (Medfield, Mass.) scoring attempt off a feed from classmate Bill Seligman (Toronto, Ontario) was stopped by deMelo, who slid to cover the left post at the 6:30 mark.

Not to be outdone, Murray made one of his best saves of the night, sprawling out at the top of the crease to turn away Soaring Eagles junior Tommy Sumi's (Whitby, Ontario) chance from the slot nearly eight minutes into the period.

Babson, despite taking a penalty for boarding with 3:34 left to go, did not allow a shot on goal over the final six minutes. The Beavers killed off the penalty and then held the puck in their offensive zone for nearly a minute, allowing Elmira to get an extra attacker on for just the final 34 seconds of the game.

Murray made 14 of his 24 stops over the final two periods, while deMelo finished with 41 saves for the Soaring Eagles.

Babson returns to action on Friday when it hosts the University of Southern Maine at 7 p.m., while Elmira will be on the road for a fifth straight game when it travels to SUNY Fredonia for a 7 p.m. face-off.

GAME NOTES: Sunday's contest marked just the second time that the Beavers and Soaring Eagles have played since 1991...Babson is now 4-4-0 all-time against Elmira…the Beavers have now won 19 consecutive games in the month of November going back to 2012…Babson upped its record to 48-0-4 when leading after two periods going back to the start of the 2011-12 season…the Green and White has now scored the first goal in all eight of its games this season…Casey, who leads the team in scoring, has contributed four goals and three assists for seven points over the last three games.