GORHAM, Maine— Junior Jimmy Fallon (Milton, Mass.) tallied his second hat trick of the season and the third of his career and No. 9 Babson College used a three-goal second period to put away the University of Southern Maine, 5-1, in a Little East Conference men's ice hockey game Saturday afternoon inside the USM Ice Arena.

With the victory, Babson captured its fifth game in a row and improved to 15-2-2 overall and 10-1-1 in the LEC. USM had a three-game winning streak snapped and dropped to 10-8-1 overall and 8-3-1 in conference play.

Senior Nate Mueller (Rogers, Minn.) made 23 saves in goal to secure the win for the Beavers. Classmate Mike Stevens (Massapequa, N.Y.) tallied a goal and an assist, junior Sean Senier (Melrose, Mass.) added a goal, and seniors Will Holland (Charlotte, N.C.) and Egan Schmitt (Schuylerville, N.Y.) contributed two assists each in the victory to lead a group of 10 Beavers who collected at least one point.

Junior Ethan MacDuff (Lloydminster, Alb.) scored the lone goal for the Huskies with an assist from sophomore Gavin Simopoulos (Cape Elizabeth, Maine). First-year Loic Morin (Drummondville, Que.) stopped 40 shots in the USM goal in the setback.

Fallon scored late in the first period to stake the Beavers to the lead. Capitalizing on a USM defender that fell down at the blue line, sophomore Evan Brown (Little Silver, N.J.) slid a pass from the right boards to a streaking Fallon in the slot, and Fallon flipped the puck over Morin for his team-leading 12th goal of the season at 17:37.

The Green and White broke the game open with three goals in a span of just over five minutes late in the second frame. After Stevens caused a USM turnover in the Babson zone, he sent first-year Brian Grant (Mansfield, Mass.) up ice for a 3-on-2; Grant found Senier open on the left side, and Senier ripped a shot past Morin for his sixth of the year at 14:27 and a 2-0 lead.

Fallon potted his second and third goals of the game on back-to-back power plays for the Beavers. He scored from the right circle at 16:55 on a one-timer on a feed from Holland at 16:55, and finished off the hat trick at 19:36 after Schmitt set him up in the slot with a nifty back-handed pass from near the right post.

Southern Maine got on the board at 12:08 of the third period when Simopoulos sent a pass from behind the net to the slot, where MacDuff hit a one-timer past Mueller inside the left post. Stevens rounded out the scoring for the Green and White, emerging with the puck after a battle in the left corner, and sniping a shot past Morin from the left goal line, top shelf inside the near post at 15:43.

Babson finished with a 45-24 margin in shots on goal and went 2-for-6 on the power play while killing off both USM attempts with the man advantage.

The Beavers will be back on the road next weekend, traveling to Vermont State Castleton on Friday and Norwich on Saturday, while USM will play at Norwich on Friday and Castleton on Saturday.

GAME NOTES
• Babson is 26-1-2 in the last 29 games against Southern Maine since 2013 and is 42-9-3 all-time against the Huskies in a series that dates back to 1995.
• Fallon, who had a hat trick in a win over Norwich on November 14, has scored five goals along with two assists in his last three games and shares the LEC lead with 14 goals.
• Brown extended his point streak to nine games and leads the league with 20 assists.
• The Green and White are 13-0 when scoring at least four goals.