GENEVA, N.Y.— Sophomore Luke Aquaro (Yardley, Pa.) scored two goals and junior Jonah Alexander (Toronto, Ontario) tallied a goal and two assists as second-ranked and top-seeded Hobart College defeated No. 13 and third-seeded Babson College, 5-1, in the New England Hockey Conference (NEHC) men's ice hockey championship game Saturday evening inside The Cooler.

With the outcome, defending champion Babson had its three-game winning streak snapped and finishes its season at 17-9-2 overall, while Hobart won its ninth game in a row to improve to 26-2. The Statesmen earned the conference's automatic berth in the NCAA Division III Championship and will learn its first-round opponent on Monday.

First-year Brendan Kennedy (Georgetown, Ontario) scored the lone goal for the Beavers, an unassisted strike in the second period. Senior goalie Nolan Hildebrand (Penticton, British Columbia) finished with 37 saves in the setback.

First-year Tanner Daniels (Edinboro, Pa.) and graduate student Zach Tyson (Dublin, Ohio) also scored for the Statesmen in the win. Sophomore Shane Shell (Westfield, N.J.) collected two assists and juniors Matthieu (Westminster, Colo.) and Artem Buzoverya (Kharkiv, Ukraine) registered one assist each. First-year Damon Beaver (Whitby, Ontario) made 14 saves in goal to improve his record to 15-2 on the season.

The Statesmen needed just two minutes and 36 seconds after the opening face-off to put up their first mark on the scoreboard as Alexander stole a clearing pass in the slot and ripped a shot past Hildebrand. The hosts doubled their lead at the 11:21 mark of the opening frame when Aquaro converted a pass from behind the net by Alexander, and extended their lead to 3-0 with 2:07 remaining in the period when Daniels buried a rebound into an empty net after Hildebrand had stopped a shot from the right point by Wuth. The three-goal outburst was a result of Hobart outshooting the visitors 17-4 in the opening 20 minutes.

The Beavers were outshot 17-8 in the second period but managed to get back into the game with the only goal on the frame. Kennedy picked up a loose puck behind the net, circle around to the right circle and fired a shot that was blocked. He retrieved the loose puck and fired a second shot that went through traffic and past Beaver to pull the Green and White to within two goals with 6:47 remaining in the second period.

After Babson killed off the first penalty of the game late in the second period, the Beavers started the third period on the power play due to a Hobart penalty with 14 seconds remaining in the second. The Statesmen delivered a blow to Babson's hopes with a shorthanded goal at 1:02 of the third period, as Tyson intercepted a breakout attempt at the blue line and went in alone on Hildebrand and slipped a shot between the pads for a 4-1 Hobart lead.

The hosts sealed the win on Aquaro's second goal of the game into an empty net with 5:22 remaining. Hobart went on to outshoot the Beavers 8-3 in the third period and 42-15 for the game.

Both teams came up empty with the man advantage, Babson on two opportunities and Hobart on three.

GAME NOTES
• Babson is 11-9-5 all-time against the Statesmen in a series that dates back to the 1987-88 season, dropped all three games this season.
• The Beavers, who were trying to win back-to-back conference championship games for the first time since 2013 and 2014, are now 7-12 all-time in conference title games.
• Kennedy's goal was the 45th by a Babson first-year this season, accounting for 48.9 percent of the Beaver goals.
• Hildebrand finished the season with a 1.69 goals against average, a .939 save percentage and a 15-6-2 record, which ranks sixth on Babson's all-time single-season list for GAA, seventh in save percentage and tied for eighth for victories.