RUTLAND, Vt.— Senior Ryan Black (Pomfret, Conn.) registered two goals and one assist, including his 100th career point, to lead No. 9 Babson College to a 5-1 victory over Castleton University Saturday afternoon in a New England Hockey Conference (NEHC) men's ice hockey contest inside the Spartan Arena.

With the victory, Babson won its fourth straight game to improve to 13-4-2 overall and 8-4-2 in conference games while Castleton lost its seventh game in a row and fell to 4-16-1 overall and 0-13-1 in the NEHC.

Black became the 21st player in program history to reach the 100-point milestone, upping his career totals to 43 goals and 57 assists. His line mates got into the action as well as senior Mike Egan (Billerica, Mass.) tallied a goal and an assist and sophomore Thomas Kramer (Bridgewater, Mass.) recorded two assists. Seniors John Corrigan (Stoneham, Mass.) and Hunter Garlasco (Mahwah, N.J.) scored empty-net goals for Babson late in the third period, and graduate student Brad Arvanitis (Holliston, Mass.) made 21 saves to record the win in goal.

First-year Zach Papapetros (North Andover, Mass.) scored the only goal for the Spartans with assists from sophomore Stone Stelzl (Blaine, Minn.) and first-year Andrew Stefura (Boston, Mass.). Junior Brandon Collett (Brockton, Mass.) made 30 saves in the Spartan net in the setback.

Egan put the Beavers on the scoreboard at 10:43 of the first period with a shot from the left circle for his ninth goal of the season, with assists from Kramer and Black. Stelzl answered for the Spartans less than two minutes later, as Papapetros threw a shot on the Babson goal from the right boards and Arvanitis made the save but Stelzl pounced on the rebound and fired in his third goal of the season.

Some good forechecking by Black, Egan and Kramer forced a Spartan turnover in their own zone four minutes into the second period and Black capitalized, skating in from the right circle and beating Collett over his left shoulder for his team-leading 13th goal of the season. It ended up being Black's NEHC-leading fifth game-winning goal of the season.

The top line struck again with less than four minutes remaining in the second, as a touch pass by Egan along the right boards send Black and Kramer into the zone on a 2-on-1. Kramer fed Black near the left circle and the senior left wing fired in his second of the game for the milestone goal to put the Beavers up 3-1 after two.

Babson outshot the hosts 11-7 in the third period but couldn't score until Corrigan's empty-netter at 17:41, and Garlasco rounded out the scoring with another empty-netter with 28 seconds remaining.

The Beavers finished with a 35-22 advantage in shots on goal. Both teams came up empty on the power play, Babson on four tries and Castleton on its only attempt.

Babson returns home for its next four games, beginning with a pair of NEHC contests next weekend against No. 13 Norwich on Friday and New England College on Saturday. Castleton hits the road next weekend for NEHC games at Hobart on Friday and Elmira on Saturday.

GAME NOTES
• Babson is 23-5-5 all-time versus Castleton in a series that dates back to 2004.
• The Beavers are unbeaten over their last 12 games (10-0-2) against the Spartans, including 5-0-1 at Spartan Arena.
• Black is the first Babson player to reach 100 points for his career since Jason Schneider '11 in 2011.
• The 100 points also ties Black for 19th on the program's career list with Brad Baldelli '09 and Ed Gavin '84.