ATTLEBOROUGH, Mass.—First-year Ryan Murphy (Grosse Pointe Farms, Mich.) scored twice in the third period and recorded his first career hat trick as 12th-ranked Babson College defeated Johnson & Wales University, 3-1, in New England Hockey Conference (NEHC) action on Friday night at the New England Sports Village.

With its fifth win in the last six games, Babson improves to 12-5-2 overall and 7-3-2 in conference play. Johnson & Wales suffered its third straight loss to drop to 2-14-1 overall and 1-10-0 in the NEHC.

Senior James Perullo (Revere, Mass.) led all players with two assists, while graduate student Max Torrez (Framingham, Mass.), junior Thomas Kramer (Bridgewater, Mass.) and first-years Ian Driscoll (Middleton, Mass.) and Mike Stevens (Massapequa, N.Y.) each added a helper for the Beavers. Senior netminder Nolan Hildebrand (Penticton, British Columbia) stopped 19 of 20 shots to earn his 10th victory of the year.

Junior Brendan Shandley (Norfolk, Mass.) had a goal and sophomore Connor Blanchard (Waltham, Mass.) registered an assist for the Wildcats, who got 43 saves from sophomore Jacob Perrin (Chelmsford, Mass.).

Johnson and Wales was whistled for a tripping penalty 3:36 into the contest and the Green and White took advantage as Murphy jammed home the rebound of a shot by Driscoll for his second power play goal of the year at 4:10 of the first period. The Wildcats took a second penalty late in the opening stanza and another less than four minutes into the second but got seven saves from Perrin to remain within striking distance.

Despite getting outshot 17-8 in the middle period, the hosts tied the game at the 15:13 mark when Shandley intercepted a clearing pass and regained control of the loose puck before beating Hildebrand with a wrist shot from the slot for his sixth goal of the season. Johnson and Wales withstood an offensive push from the Beavers thanks to 11 saves over the first 12 minutes of the third period from Perrin before Murphy broke the deadlock with just under seven minutes to play.

Wildcats' senior Breck Crawford (Alpharetta, Ga.) blocked a shot on an odd-man rush but Kramer regained the puck and Murphy beat Perrin with a one-timer after a centering pass from Perullo to make it 2-1 at the 13:04 mark. He completed his hat trick and put the game away with an empty net goal with 17 seconds remaining for the final margin.

The Beavers outshot Johnson & Wales 46-20 on the night and went 1-for-4 on the power play while killing off their only minor penalty of the night midway through the first period.

Both teams return to action on Saturday at 4 p.m. as Babson travels to UMass Boston while the Wildcats host Southern Maine.

GAME NOTES
• The Beavers are 8-0 all-time against Johnson & Wales.
• Murphy's hat trick is the first by a Babson player since December 4, 2021, when Kramer scored three times in a 6-4 win at Norwich.
• The Beavers are 6-0-1 this season when allowing just one goal and have scored at least three goals in all 12 of their wins.
• Babson is 10-2-1 this winter when scoring on the power play.