Ephs cruise to 6-1 victory over UNE
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass - The Williams College men's hockey team got six goals from six different skaters en route to a dominating 6-1 victory over University of New England Saturday.
With the win the Ephs improve to 4-0-1 (3-0 Conference) with just three games left before the holiday break. UNE, in just their first year fielding a men's hockey team, drop to 0-6.
The Ephs controlled from the outset, unloading 31 shots to UNE's 13 while converting on 2 of 7 power play opportunities while UNE was held to 0 for 4. Marc Pulde notched 12 saves in the net to anchor the defense.
After taking a 2-1 lead into the first intermission, Williams exploded for three scores in the first six minutes of the second period to put the game out of reach.
"I have to give them a lot of credit. They definitely were frustrating us in the opening period." noted Eph coach Bill Kangas, "But our guys responded with that big stretch in the 2nd and showed a lot of character. You have to earn each and every win and the kids did that tonight."
After bombarding the UNE net for the bulk of the games opening power play, the Ephs would make it 1-0 off a ricochet put-back from Brian Malcoff just 4:10 into the game.
UNE would tie it back up when they countered following the kill of an Eph power play that ended with Ted Fabian punching in the rebound off of a Pulde leg save.
However, the Ephs would reclaim the lead before the period was through when Matt Masucci broke through the UNE power play and deked goalkeeper Mike Roper (25 saves) before slipping it past the right post to notch the short-handed score and make it 2-1 after one period of play.
The late first period score proved to be the spark that would ignite the Eph offense as they would get scores from Connor Olvany, Alex Smigelski, and Evan Dugdale in the opening 5:40 of the 2nd period to balloon the advantage to 5-1.
The Ephs would add yet another score in the final period, this time when Smigelski drew in the UNE defense before dumping it to a waiting Ben Contini whose slap shot found the back of the net and finished UNE with a final score of 6-1.
The Ephs have little time to dwell on their latest lop-sided victory, because their back at it tomorrow where they will play host to Southern Maine. That game I scheduled to being at 7:00 PM.
