HENNIKER, N.H.—Junior Colby Bailey (Southborough, Mass.) tallied a goal and an assist and No. 15 Babson College scored a pair of power play goals on the way to defeating New England College, 3-1, Friday evening in New England Hockey Conference (NEHC) men's ice hockey action inside Lee Clement Arena.

With the victory, the Beavers improve to 14-7-2 overall and 9-5-2 in the NEHC and maintain a hold on third place in the conference while NEC dropped its fourth in a row and falls to 9-12-1 overall and 6-8-1 in league play.

Graduate student Max Torrez (Framingham, Mass.) and first-year Brendan Kennedy (Georgetown, Ontario) also scored for the Beavers, and first-years Egan Schmitt (Schuylerville, N.Y.) and Nolan Dion (Marshfield, Mass.) and junior Thomas Kramer (Bridgewater, Mass.) picked up assists. Senior goalie Nolan Hildebrand (Penticton, B.C.) made 25 saves in the win to improve to 12-4-2 on the season.

Sophomore Connor Lefkof (Frisco, Texas) scored for the Pilgrims with assists from first-year Manny Cabral (Providence, R.I.) and sophomore Wyatt Andrew (Brainerd, Minn.). Graduate student Spencer Kozlowski (Vancouver, B.C.) made 40 saves in the NEC goal but took the loss.

After a scoreless first period that included three NEC power plays and one for Babson, the visitors got on the board at 4:39 of the second period. After a face-off to Kozlowski's left, Schmitt collected a loose puck at the bottom of the right circle and centered it in front where Torrez pounded home a shot from the top of the crease for his third of the season.

After killing off three more penalties, the Beavers doubled their lead midway through the period with a power play of their own as Kennedy tipped in a shot by Dion from the middle of the zone just inside the blue line for his fifth of the season. The Pilgrims got one back with just over a minute to play in the second when a centering pass from behind the net was deflected out to Lefkof at the left point and he fired a shot through traffic that beat Hildebrand low to the stick side.

Babson regained its two-goal lead during a 5-on-3 power play midway through the third period. After Kozlowski made a pair of grade-A saves on Kramer, the puck came to Bailey at the left point. He skated toward the net before firing a wrist shot past a screened Kozlowski to make it 3-1 with 11:49 on the clock.

The visitors kept up the pressure on the NEC goal but Kozlowski made five more saves before the penalty expired. Then it was Hildebrand's turn as he made five stops in the next four minutes to preserve the lead. NEC pulled Kozlowski for an extra skater with a minute to play but the Babson defense allowed just two shots on goal and Hildebrand made a nice stop on senior Alex LaPlante (Londonderry, N.H.) in the closing seconds to secure the win.

Babson finished with a 43-26 advantage in shots on goal. The Beavers went 2-for-4 on the power play and killed off all eight NEC opportunities with the man advantage.

Both teams are back on the ice on Saturday at 4 p.m. as Babson travels to No. 8 Norwich and New England College hosts Southern Maine.

GAME NOTES
• The Beavers are 47-24-8 all-time against New England College in a series that dates back to 1977.
• Babson is now 11-3-1 this season when scoring on the power play and is 44-9-3 over the past four years when scoring with the man advantage.
• The Green and White have not surrendered more than one or two goals in 10 of the past 11 games and have allowed fewer than 30 shots in 11 of the past 12 contests.
• Babson is 10-1 this season when taking a lead into the third period and is 65-1-2 when leading after two periods since 2017-18.