HARRISVILLE, R.I. (Feb. 15) – The Curry College men’s hockey team scored three third period goals to break open the game in a 5-1 ECAC Northeast victory over Nichols College Monday afternoon. The game, which was the only game in all of college hockey today, was rescheduled from February 10th due to snow. The Colonels improve to 16-5-1 overall and 10-1-1 in conference games to maintain first place in the standings. Nichols drops to 12-9-2 overall and 6-6-0 in league play, remaining in a three-way tie for fourth place with two games left on the season.
Payden Benning put Curry on the board while the Colonels had a four-on-three advantage late in the first period. Ryan Barlock held the puck behind the net and slipped it to Ryan Warsofsky at the left post just after a Nichols defender handed Nichols netminder Jacob Rinn (Warwick, R.I.) his stick because Rinn’s had been knocked away. Warsofsky quickly sent the puck across the netfront to Benning, who wristed the puck high past Rinn’s blocker from inside the left circle.
The second period featured 12 combined penalties and fewer than 10 minutes of five-on-five action. Curry took a 2-0 lead before all the whistles began, as leading scorer John Williams potted a rebound just 53 seconds into the frame. Michael Cenisio got the puck to Brett Kaneshiro, whose shot was blocked. The puck popped out to Williams right in front for the sophomore to lift the puck in past Rinn’s blocker.
Nichols’ best chance of the second came late in the frame while both teams were down a skater. Bryan Gill (New Hyde Park, N.Y.) fired from above the left circle, but his shot was blocked. He picked up the puck and deked a defender while bringing it into the slot and then fired, but his shot rolled off of Curry goaltender Robert Dawson and over the top of the net.
Each team scored on each end of the ice in the third period due to a resurfacing issue that forced Nichols to start the period on the same end in which it played in the second. The teams switched ends midway through the third period to finish the game out.
Drew Palmer (Chelmsford, Mass.) snapped Nichols’ power play drought with his third score of the season at 8:05 of the final frame to cut the Colonels’ lead in half at 2-1. The goal marked the first in 20 attempts by the Bison spanning four games. Zach Kohn (Hartland, Wis.) controlled the puck on the left sideboards before passing to Palmer at the point. Palmer looked for the pass back to Kohn, but with a Curry player threatening, Palmer took the shot instead, putting Nichols on the board midway through the period.
After the teams switched ends, Casey Brugman gave the Colonels back the two-goal advantage with a breakaway goal with less than five minutes left in the third, sparking a three-goal outburst by Curry to put the game in check. Jonathan Miller got the breakout play rolling with the puck deep in the Colonels’ zone by sending an outlet pass to Benning, who snuck by a Nichols defender before slipping the puck to Brugman in the neutral zone. Brugman carried it the rest of the way before faking left and bringing it onto his backhand and lifting it past Rinn at 16:14.
Curry struck next on the power play as Warsofsky rifled the puck from the right point just 12 seconds into the man advantage. Williams got the puck off the faceoff in the left corner and sent it out to Benning at the point. Benning passed across the blue line to Warsofsky with his stick raised high for a one-timer that picked the upper right-hand corner of the net. The goal marked the first on the season for the defenseman.
The Colonels capped the scoring with 50 seconds remaining when Miller slipped a rebound through Rinn’s five-hole. Connor Hendry took a shot from the bottom of the left circle that Rinn stopped, but the puck trickled out to Hendry at the doorstop.
Dawson made 37 saves for the Colonels to improve to 3-1-1 on the season, while Rinn drops to 6-4-0 with 31 stops.
Nichols finished 1-for-9 on the power play; the Colonels converted at a 2-for-6 clip.
Nichols travels to Western New England College Thursday for a 7:25 pm conference game before closing out the regular season Sunday in a 5:10 p.m. league game at Johnson & Wales. Curry hosts Johnson & Wales Thursday at 7:35 p.m. before traveling to Wentworth for its regular season finale Sunday a 2 p.m.
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