HENNIKER, N.H. — Junior Alex LaPlante (Londonderry, N.H.) recorded his first career hat trick Tuesday evening as New England College upset No. 5 Babson College, 4-1, in a New England Hockey Conference (NEHC) men's game at Lee Clement Arena.

With the outcome, Babson lost for the second time in three games over the past four days and fell to 9-3-2 overall and 5-3-2 in the conference. NEC won its second in a row to up its record to 9-5-1 overall and 4-5-1 in the NEHC.

First-year Wyatt George (Mount Lebanon, Pa.) scored the only goal for Babson in the opening minute of the game, with assists from graduate student Paul Boutoussov (Dana Point, Calif.) and senior Matt Wiesner (Newport Beach, Calif.). Graduate student goalie Brad Arvanitis (Holliston, Mass.) made 26 saves for the Beavers in the loss.

In addition to LaPlante, who has five goals and two assists in his last two games, the Pilgrims got one goal from junior Chris Lee (Rapid City, S.D.) and two assists each from senior Bernie McGovern (Medford, Mass.) and sophomore Linus Udd Hellgren (Gavle, Sweden). Senior Andrew Kormos (Milford, Mich.) posted the victory in goal with 24 saves, improving his record to 6-3 on the season.

Babson needed less than a minute after the opening face-off to light the lamp as Boutoussov centered a pass from behind the net and George pounded home his fourth goal of the season just 58 seconds in. NEC came back to even the score at 11:31 when LaPlante fired in his first goal on a shot from the left circle after a face-off win by McGovern.

The Pilgrims pulled ahead five minutes into the second period on LaPlante's second goal of the night, and what turned out to be the game-winner, as he finished off a 3-on-2 with a shot from the slot that beat Arvanitis.

The score remained 2-1 until 16:19 of the third period when Lee capitalized on a loose puck in the slot in front of the Babson goal and snapped a shot over the shoulder of Arvanitis for a two-goal lead. The Beavers pulled Arvanitis with two minutes to go to no avail, as LaPlante finished off his hat trick with an empty-netter with 55 seconds remaining. LaPlante now has a team-high eight goals and seven assists this season.

The Pilgrims finished with a 30-25 advantage in shots on goal, and both teams went 0-for-3 on the power play.

The Beavers return home for their next three games, beginning with an NEHC encounter Friday night at the Babson Skating Center against UMass Boston, beginning at 7 p.m. NEC continues its four-game homestand on Friday with a conference match-up against Skidmore at 7 p.m.

GAME NOTES
• Babson is 45-23-8 all-time against New England College in a series that dates back to 1977.
• Tuesday's game was a make-up of a contest originally scheduled for December 3, 2021.
• The one goal by the Beavers was a season-low, and the fewest in a game since a 4-1 home loss to Hobart on February 15, 2020.
• Babson is now 5-1-1 this season when scoring the first goal of the game, suffering its first loss when scoring first since the season-opening 4-2 loss to Curry on November 2, 2019, snapping a streak of 26 games (25-0-1).