GORHAM, Maine—Senior Andrew Holland (Winchester, Mass.) scored the go-ahead goal at 13:31 of the third period helping head coach Jamie Rice '90 record the 300th win of his career as No. 11 Babson College defeated the University of Southern Maine, 3-2, in New England Hockey Conference (NEHC) action on Saturday afternoon inside the USM Ice Arena.

With its third straight win, Babson improves to 10-4-2 overall and 5-2-2 in league play, while Southern Maine drops to 2-11-1 overall and 1-8-0 in the NEHC.

Junior Chris Rooney (Milton, Mass.) and first-year Mike Stevens (Massapequa, N.Y.) each scored once and first-year Charlie Andriole (Branford, Conn.) picked up a pair of assists for the Beavers. Andrew Holland, sophomore Matt Cormier (Waltham, Mass.) and first-years Nolan Dion (Marshfield, Mass.) and Will Holland (Charlotte, N.C.) all registered one assist, while senior goaltender Nolan Hildebrand (Penticton, British Columbia) stopped 30 of 32 shots to improve to 8-1-2 on the season.

Junior Austin Marini (Hyde Park, Mass.) finished with a goal and an assist and senior Tanner McClure (Buxton, Maine) scored once for the Huskies. First-year Jakub Suran (Liberec, Czech Republic), junior Cole Ouellette (Lewiston, Maine) and senior Curtis Judd (Newton, Mass.) all registered an assist and sophomore netminder Kyle Penton (Waltham, Mass.) turned away 32 shots in the loss.

The Green and White took a 1-0 into the first intermission after Rooney notched his sixth goal of the season at 19:55 of the opening period. Cormier played the puck back to Andriole at the left point and Rooney tipped his blast past Penton to put the visitors on top.

Babson killed off a holding penalty early in the second but Southern Maine pulled even midway through the stanza when Suran raced through the neutral zone and split a pair of defenders at the top of the left face-off circle to set up McClure's third goal of the year with a pass across the top of the crease. The Beavers went back in front at 7:48 of the third though as Andrew Holland found Andriole in the left circle before Stevens buried his centering feed for his fourth goal and 2-1 edge.

The Huskies killed off a cross-checking penalty and then took advantage of a 41-second 5-on-3 power play to pull even when Marini jammed home the rebound of a shot by Ouellette at the 11:39 mark. Babson took the lead for good less than two minutes later though on a power play of its own as Andrew Holland redirected Dion's shot from the left point past Penton for his sixth goal to make it 3-2.

Hildebrand made the last of his 12 third-period saves with just over four minutes to play and the Green and White held the hosts without a shot the rest of the way to close out the win.

The Beavers outshot the Huskies 35-32 and went 1-for-4 on the power play while the hosts finished 1-for-3 with a man advantage.

Both teams return to action next Friday at 7 p.m. as Babson hosts Elmira and Southern Maine welcomes No. 1 Hobart.

GAME NOTES
• The Beavers are 35-9-1 all-time against Southern Maine and have won 21 of the last 22 games in the series dating back to 2013.
• Rice, who become Babson's all-time wins leader back in 2019, is one of 13th active Division III coaches with 300 wins.
• Rooney now has a goal in four consecutive games and owns a five-game points streak going back to December 6.
• The Beavers are now 9-1-1 on the year when allowing two goals or fewer.