Cormier Finishes with Career-High Four Points as Hildebrand Records Second Career Shutout

BABSON PARK, Mass.—Sophomore Matt Cormier (Waltham, Mass.) finished with two goals and two assists for a career-high four points and senior Nolan Hildebrand (Penticton, British Columbia) stopped all 19 shots he faced to record his second career shutout as No. 14 Babson College defeated visiting Castleton University, 7-0, in New England Hockey Conference (NEHC) ice hockey action on Friday night inside the Babson Skating Center.

With the win, Babson improves to 13-6-2 overall and 8-4-2 in conference play. Castleton slips to 5-14-0 overall and 3-9-0 in the NEHC.

Junior Thomas Kramer (Bridgewater, Mass.) registered a goal and two assists and first-years Cam Joslin (Cohasset, Mass.), Ryan Murphy (Grosse Pointe Farms, Mich.) and Mike Stevens (Massapequa, N.Y.) all tallied a goal and an assist for the Beavers. Fellow rookie Brendan Kennedy (Georgetown, Ontario) added a goal, senior James Perullo (Revere, Mass.) finished with two assists and junior Colby Bailey (Southborough, Mass.) added one helper in the win.

Hildebrand made 10 of his 19 saves in the second period to improve to 11-3-2 on the year while lowering his goals against average to 1.67. The shutout was his first since January 30, 2021, against Castleton and Babson's first since blanking Trinity in the first round of last year's NCAA Tournament.

Senior Brandon Collett (Brockton, Mass.) stopped 17 of 21 shots over the first two periods before giving way to first-year Josh Ward (Ottawa, Ontario), who made six third-period saves for the Spartans.

Babson jumped on top 7:49 into the opening period on Kramer's team-leading eighth goal of the season. He took a long outlet pass from Murphy and beat Collett short side from the left circle. The Beavers doubled their advantage less than three minutes later when Cormier jammed home Stevens' pass from below the goal line for his third tally of the year at the 10:38 mark.

The Green and White extended its lead to 3-0 just 55 seconds into the second period when Kramer kept the puck in the zone and found Kennedy, who split a pair of defenders before beating Collett for his fourth goal. Babson killed off a pair of minor penalties in the stanza and Cormier redirected Perullo's blast from the top of the left circle for his second goal of the night to extend the margin to 4-0 at 18:41 of the second.

The Beavers finished off the rout with three goals in the first 6:37 of the third period. Stevens made it 5-0 with a wrister from the slot at the 3:40 mark, Murphy followed with his eighth goal of the year off a face-off at 5:23 and Joslin scored in transition just over a minute later to make it 7-0.

Babson finished with a 30-19 edge in shots and went 0-for-3 on the power play while Castleton finished 0-for-4 with a man-advantage.

Both teams return to action on Saturday at 4 p.m. as Babson hosts Skidmore while Castleton travels to Southern Maine.

GAME NOTES
• The Beavers are 25-5-5 all-time against Castleton and extended their unbeaten streak in the series to 16 games.
• Babson has scored at least three goals in all 13 of its wins this winter.
• The Beavers are 11-2-1 on the year when scoring the first goal of the game and are 7-1-1 when leading after the first period.
• Kramer extended his points streak to five games and now has 12 points over his last eight games going back to December 30.