No. 6 Men's Ice Hockey vs. No. 10 Norwich
Friday, December 2 | 7 p.m.
Babson Skating Center | Babson Park, Mass.
No. 6 Men's Ice Hockey vs. New England College
Saturday, December 3 | 4 p.m.
Babson Skating Center | Babson Park, Mass.
BABSON: Roster | Schedule & Results | Stats
NORWICH: Roster | Schedule & Results | Stats
NEC: Roster | Schedule & Results | Stats
NEHC: Standings | Schedule & Results | Stats
USCHO: Division III Poll
SERIES HISTORY
vs. Norwich
• The Beavers are 27-46-7 all-time against Norwich in a series that dates back to the 1975-76 campaign.
• The teams split last year's regular season games, with the road team winning both contests, before Babson pulled out a 2-1 overtime victory over the Cadets in the NEHC Tournament quarterfinals inside the Babson Skating Center.
• The Green and White have won five of the last eight over Norwich in Babson Park.
vs. NEC
• Babson is 46-23-8 all-time against New England College in a series that dates back to 1977.
• The Green and White have won six of the last seven against the Pilgrims, with the only blemish a 4-1 setback last January in Henniker, N.H.
• Babson is 5-0-1 in the last six against NEC at the Babson Skating Center, dating back to the 2017-18 season.
LAST MEETING
vs. Norwich
• Senior Andrew Holland scored his first goal of the season at 12:47 of overtime to lift No. 8 and fourth-seeded Babson to a 2-1 victory over No. 14 and fifth-seeded Norwich in an NEHC quarterfinal on February 19, 2022 inside the Babson Skating Center.
• Babson also got a third-period game-tying goal from Cam Schmitt '22 with 5:47 remaining that forced the overtime. Matt Wiesner '22, Jack Nisbet '22 and senior James Perullo picked up assists, and Brad Arvanitis '22G made 23 saves to earn the win in goal.
• The Norwich goal was a short-hander by senior Callum Jones, assisted by sophomore Clark Kerner, that broke up a scoreless deadlock at 3:53 of the third period. Senior Drennen Atherton finished with 38 saves to suffer a hard-luck setback.
vs. NEC
• Ryan Black '22 scored the game-winning goal on a breakaway three minutes and 28 seconds into overtime as No. 7 Babson edged NEC, 5-4, on February 5, 2022, inside the Babson Skating Center.
• Paul Boutoussov '22G scored two goals for the Beavers, while Black finished with a goal and an assist and Mike Egan '22 and junior Thomas Kramer scored once each. Sophomore Wyatt George collected two assists and Arvanitis made 30 saves in goal to earn the win.
• Connor Inger '22 scored a pair of goals and added an assist for the Pilgrims and graduate student Alex LaPlante tallied a goal and an assist. Chris Maratea '22 also scored for the visitors, and C.J. Valerian '22G finished with three assists. Grad student Andrew Kormos made 37 saves but suffered a tough-luck loss.
SCOUTING THE BEAVERS
• No. 6 Babson (7-2-1, 4-1-1) returns to NEHC competition after posting a 2-1 record last week in non-conference road matchups against teams from the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC). The Beavers sandwiched victories over Tufts (3-2) on Tuesday and Amherst (3-1) on Sunday around an overtime loss at Williams (2-1) on Saturday.
• First-year Will Holland finished with a goal and an assist and senior goaltender Nolan Hildebrand stopped 40 shots in Sunday's win at Amherst. Sophomore Matt Cormier and first-year Egan Schmitt each had a goal and first-year Sam Sibold recorded a season-high two assists in the win.
• First-year Brendan Kennedy scored his first career goal in the third period to force overtime Saturday against Williams. Classmate Nate Mueller made 34 saves in the tough-luck loss.
• Perullo (3-5-8) and Kramer (2-6-8) share the team scoring lead through 10 games, with Andrew Holland (4-3-7) and Will Holland (1-6-7) just a point back. Hildebrand is 4-0-1 with a 1.79 GAA and a .948 save percentage in six starts in goal while Mueller is 2-2 with a 2.47 GAA and a .929 save percentage in four starts.
SCOUTING THE CADETS
• No. 10 Norwich (6-2-0, 4-1-0 NEHC) split a pair of games at home last weekend in the FirstLight Shootout. The Cadets defeated No. 12 Aurora, 4-2, Friday at Kreitzberg Arena, before a 3-1 loss to No. 14 Plattsburgh State on Saturday in the championship game.
• Sophomore Alex Lewis scored the lone goal for the Cadets in the loss to Plattsburgh, and Atherton made 25 saves in the setback.
• Senior Philip Elgstam had a goal and an assist in the win over Aurora, and first-year Johnny Johnson and junior Joe Nagle tallied power play goals before Jones tacked on an empty-netter. Atherton finished with 16 saves.
• Kerner (6-2-8) leads the team in scoring, supported by Johnson (3-3-6), senior Noah Williams (2-4-6) and junior Patrick O'Neal (1-5-6). Atherton (6-2, 1.64 GAA, 9.29 sv. pct), last year's NEHC Goalie of the Year, has played all eight games in goal for the Cadets.
SCOUTING THE PILGRIMS
• New England College (4-5-0, 2-3-0 NEHC) is coming off a pair of victories over UMass Dartmouth (3-2 OT) and Southern New Hampshire (4-2) to claim the championship of the Stovepipe Tourney at SNHU last weekend.
• Laplante, sophomore David Novotny and first-year Manny Cabral scored second period goals in the win over SNHU and junior Anthony Cinato tacked on a third-period power play marker to clinch the victory. Kormos made 33 saves to earn the win in goal.
• Cinato potted the overtime game-winner against UMass Dartmouth after seniors Brendan White and Jhuwon Davis tallied second-period goals for the Pilgrims. Graduate student Spencer Kozlowski made 35 saves to record his first win of the season.
• Cinato (4-4-8) tops the team in scoring with Laplante (4-2-6) and Novotny (4-1-5) sharing the goal-scoring lead. Kormos and Kozlowski have split time between the pipes for the Pilgrims, Kormos (3-2, 1.41 GAA, .941 sv. pct) starting five games and Kozlowski (1-3, 4.28 GAA, .896 sv pct.) getting the nod in four outings.
POLL POSITION
• The Beavers are ranked sixth in this week's USCHO Division III men's poll, while Norwich is 10th.
• The NEHC has three of the top 10 teams in the poll, led by Hobart (8-0-0) in the top spot receiving all 20 first-place votes. Skidmore has moved into the poll at No. 15, giving the NEHC the most of any conference.
BALANCED OFFENSE
• Babson's 32 goals this season have come from 18 different players, as two players have scored four times, two have scored three and four have scored twice.
• Ten players have scored their first career goals this season for the Beavers.
PLUS-MINUS
• Will Holland sits atop the NEHC in plus/minus rating at +11, while Perullo and graduate student Max Torrez are tied for ninth at +7.
BEAVERS VS. THIS WEEK'S OPPONENTS
• Kramer is the leading active scorer vs. Norwich with three goals in three career games while Andrew Holland has a goal and two assists in five career contests vs. the Cadets. Perullo and George have two career assists each against Norwich.
• Perullo has racked up six points (2-4-6) in seven appearances against NEC, while Andrew Holland has three points (1-2-3) in eight games and George has three points (1-2-3) in two contests. Kramer (2-0-2 in 4 gms), Rooney (1-1-2 in 7 gms), and junior Colby Bailey (0-2-2 in 6 gms) are the only other Beavers to produce points vs. NEC.
NUMBERS TO KNOW
• The Beavers are 3-0 at home this season and are 18-2-2 since the start of 2020-21 and 27-6-2 since the beginning of the 2019-20 campaign at the Babson Skating Center.
• The Green and White are 7-0-1 this season and 25-3-2 since the start of last season when scoring at least three goals.
• Babson has won all six games this season when taking a lead into the third period and is 61-0-2 when leading after two periods since 2017-18.
• The Beavers are 5-1-1 this season when scoring a power play goal and are 19-4-2 when scoring with the man advantage going back to last season.
UP NEXT
• The Beavers will play their last game before final exams and Christmas next Tuesday, December 6, when they travel to No. 11 Trinity. It will be a rematch of last year's NCAA Tournament first-round game, which Babson captured, 3-0, at the Babson Skating Center.
