RUTLAND, Vt.— The Babson College men's ice hockey team scored three goals in a span of four minutes in the second period and that proved to be enough as the Beavers downed Vermont State University Castleton, 3-1, in a Little East Conference game Saturday afternoon inside Spartan Arena.
With the victory, the Beavers have won three of their last four games to improve to 3-1-1 overall and 3-1-0 in the Little East. Castleton had a three-game unbeaten streak snapped and drops to 1-3-2 overall and 1-1-2 in conference play.
First-years
Declan Grenache (Sutton, Mass.) and
Nolan Russell (Arlington, Mass.) and senior
Jimmy Fallon (Milton, Mass.) produced goals for the Beavers, junior
Evan Brown (Little Silver, N.J.) registered a pair of assists, and first-years
Griffin Bucci (North Andover, Mass.),
Ryan Diffley (Old Saybrook, Conn.), and
Nico Pasquale (Chicago, Ill.) and senior
CJ Beals (Chelmsford, Mass.) added one assist each. First-year goalies
Blake Truchon (South Burlington, Vt.) and
Caden Pasqualone (Long Beach, N.Y.) made their collegiate debuts, with Truchon making 22 saves on 23 shots in 48 minutes between the pipes and Pasqualone finishing up by stopping all six shots he faced in the final 12 minutes.
First-year Simon Semancik (Stara Lesna, Slovakia) scored the lone goal for the Spartans with assists from junior Trevor Castino (Woodland Hills, Calif.) and first-year Adrian Mendoza (Ile Perrot, Que.). Sophomore Lukas Bukatovs (Jelgava, Latvia) made 26 saves in goal in the setback.
After a scoreless first period that saw the hosts outshoot the visitors 12-8, Babson came alive with three goals in the first eight minutes of the second period. Grenache got the scoring started with a power play goal at 3:32, taking a pass from Bucci near the right face-off dot, skating over to the left circle and ripping a shot inside the right post, glove side, for his third goal of the season and a 1-0 lead.
Less than a minute later, the Beavers doubled their lead. Bukatovs made a kick save with his left pad on a shot from the left side by Beals, but Brown pushed the rebound to a wide open Fallon at the right post and he buried his sixth of the season for a 2-0 lead at 4:24 of the second period.
Russell kept the Beaver momentum going with a third goal at 7:29 after Babson broke up a Castleton pass at the center red line. Brown and Russell worked a give-and-go near the right circle before Russell snapped a shot past Bukatovs for his third of the season to make it 3-0.
The Beavers held on to the three-goal margin until the Spartans broke into the scoring column at 8:05 of the third period. Truchon lost track of a loose puck in the crease and Semancik put it in the back of the net to cut the margin to 3-1 with 12 minutes remaining. That would end up as the extent of the Castleton offense.
In a game that saw just two minor penalties whistled on each team, Babson went 1-2 on the power play while killing off both Castleton attempts with the man advantage.
Babson plays its third straight LEC road game next Saturday at Southern Maine as 6 p.m. in Gorham, Maine. The Spartans continue a six-game homestand on Friday against UMass Boston at 7 p.m. inside Spartan Arena.
GAME NOTES
• The Beavers are unbeaten against Castleton over the last 22 games (20-0-2) and are 32-5-5 all-time versus Castleton in a series that dates back to 2004.
• Fallon continued his hot start to the season, producing his sixth goal in five games, and now has 11 goals in his last 10 outings going back to last season.
• Babson is 3-1 this season and 17-2 going back to last winter when scoring at least once on the power play.
• Truchon and Pasqualone are the 15th and 16th Babson first-years to appear in a game this season.
