BABSON PARK, Mass.—Junior Colby Bailey (Southborough, Mass.) scored twice and first-years Nolan Dion (Marshfield, Mass.) and Danny Cavanagh (Warwick, R.I.) each scored their first career goal as Babson College wrapped up the regular season with a 6-2 victory over the University of Southern Maine Saturday afternoon in New England Hockey Conference (NEHC) men's ice hockey action inside the Babson Skating Center.

With the win, the Beavers finish the season at 15-8-2 overall and 10-6-2 in league play while the Huskies suffered their fourth straight loss and wind up 5-18-2 overall and 4-14-0 in the NEHC. Babson ended up in a tie for third place in the conference and will host a first-round playoff game next Saturday while USM finished out of playoff contention.

Cavanagh and first-year Ian Driscoll (Middleton, Mass.) each finished with a goal and an assist, senior James Perullo (Revere, Mass.) scored once, and first-year Charlie Andriole (Branford, Conn.) collected two assists. Senior Chris Rooney (Milton, Mass.), junior Thomas Kramer (Bridgewater, Mass.) and first-years Mike Stevens (Massapequa, N.Y.), Ryan Murphy (Grosse Pointe Farms, Mich.), Nolan Woudenberg (Collegeville, Pa.), and Cam Joslin (Cohasset, Mass.) also posted one assist apiece, and senior goalie Nolan Hildebrand (Penticton, B.C.) made 14 saves in the victory.

Senior Nolan McElhaney (Natick, Mass.) and sophomore Azam Jiwa (Calgary, Alb.) scored goals for the Huskies and senior Curtis Judd (Newton, Mass.) and junior Austin Marini (Hyde Park, Mass.) registered assists in the setback. USM used a different goalie in each period, with sophomore Kyle Penton (Waltham, Mass.) making 10 saves in the first frame, first-year Jacob Kindestin (Barre, Vt.) making 17 in the second and sophomore Mason Palmer (Cumming, Ga.) stopping 10 shots in the third.

Babson jumped on top with a pair of goals in the first four minutes of the game. Driscoll picked up the puck behind the USM net, circled around in front and fired a shot from the right face-off circle that beat Penton for a 1-0 lead at 1:36, and Bailey snapped a wrister from the right point that glanced off traffic in front for a power play goal at 3:32 to make it 2-0.

The Huskies got one back at 8:20 of the first when they created a 2-on-1 and Jiwa pounded home the puck in front through Hildebrand's pads to cut the deficit in half in what was USM's first shot on goal. Babson regained its two-goal lead three minutes later when Bailey fired another shot from the right point that went through traffic and snuck inside the left post for his second of the game at 11:29.

The Beavers had a dominating second period, outshooting the visitors 18-1, but could manage just one goal off Kindestin, who was making his career debut. After Babson won the face-off back to Dion at the left point, he carried the puck down the left wall towards the corner, cut towards the next and flipped a backhander past Kindestion to extend the Beaver lead to 4-1.

The Green and White blew the game open with two more goals 27 seconds apart in the first three-plus minutes of the third period. Perullo picked up a rebound of a shot by Woudenberg just inside the blue line and fired a shot from the high slot that beat Palmer low to the glove side, and Cavanagh pounced on a rebound in front off a shot by Andriole and buried the puck into an empty net to make it 6-1.

USM closed out the scoring in the final minute of the game when McElhaney redirected a crossing pass from Judd on the left side for the 6-2 final.

Babson finished with a 43-16 advantage in shots on goal, went 1-for-3 on the power play and killed off all three USM power play attempts.

The Beavers earned the third seed in the NEHC playoffs and will host sixth-seeded UMass Boston next Saturday at 4 p.m. at the Babson Skating Center.

GAME NOTES
• The Beavers have won 22 of their last 23 games against the Huskies and now have a 36-9-1 lead in the all-time series that dates back to 1995.
• Dion and Cavanagh became the 20th and 21st different players to score for Babson this season and the 12th and 13th first-years to find the back of the net.
• The Green and White defense produced four goals and three assists in the game, with five blue-liners contributing at least one point.
• Babson is 13-2-1 this season when scoring the first goal and 47-6-2 over the past four campaigns when scoring the first goal of the game.