BABSON PARK, Mass.— Babson's Bill Seligman scored on the power play at 14:41 of the third period to lift No. 15 USCHO.com/No. 13 D3hockey.com Babson College to a 2-1 win over visiting Skidmore College in New England Hockey Conference (NEHC) men's ice hockey action on Friday night at the Babson Skating Center.
Skidmore slips to 2-2-0 overall and 2-1-0 in the NEHC. Babson is now 2-1-1 overall and 1-0-0 in conference play, .
Connor Van Arnam scored for the Thoroughbreds, who got assists from Marc Cibelli and Matt Wolf. Netminder Jack McDonald finished with 29 saves in the loss.
Rob Devaney had a goal and Tommy Munichiello finished with two assists for the Beavers. Goaltender Matt Pompa (Palm City, Fla.) finished with 36 saves to earn his first win of the year.
Skidmore scored the only goal of the opening period on the power play at the 9:16 mark. Pompa made back-to-back saves on Cibelli and Wolf, but Van Arnam atoned for hitting the post earlier on the power play with his first goal of the season to take a 1-0 lead.
McDonald helped the Thoroughbreds maintain their advantage for much of the second period. He stuffed Searles at the post just 1:33 into the stanza and later stopped McMorrow on a breakaway before the Beavers broke through on a power play late in the stanza. Following a rush up ice, Munichiello's initial shot didn't make it on goal, but Devaney was there to stuff home the rebound for his second tally with 3:48 left in the period.
Pompa made six of his 20 third-period saves to help kill off a Skidmore power play midway through the frame. McDonald kept the game deadlocked with a pad save on Beavers' junior Ryan Gouveia with a little over nine minutes left, but the hosts took advantage of a Thoroughbreds' tripping penalty when Seligman converted a feed from Searles to go in front for good with 5:19 remaining.
The Green and White again leaned on Pompa late in the period as he made six more saves, which included one during 63 seconds of a 5-on-3 Skidmore power play with less than three minutes left to close out the win.
The Thoroughbreds finished with a 37-31 edge in shots, while the Beavers went 2-for-6 on the power play.
Both teams return to the ice on Saturday at 4 p.m. as Babson hosts Castleton, while Skidmore visits second-ranked UMass Boston.
