Box Score
BABSON PARK, Mass.—Second-seeded Babson College scored four times on the power play to defeat seventh-seeded Skidmore College, 5-2, in a New England Hockey Conference (NEHC) quarterfinal contest on Saturday night at the Babson Skating Center.
No. 9 USCHO.com/No. 10 D3hockey.com Babson, which is 12-2 in its last 14 conference tournament quarterfinal appearances, moves to 18-5-3 on the year, while Skidmore sees its season come to a close at 5-17-4.
Skidmore Senior Ondrej Krajnak (Presov, Slovakia) and sophomore Christian Leahy (Scituate, Mass.) both scored once, while sophomores Luke Alletzhauser (Cicero, N.Y.) and Mickey Foley (Longmeadow, Mass.) each contributed an assist for the Thoroughbreds.
Skidmore took a penalty 5:09 into the first period and Jared Wiedemann made them pay with his third career postseason goal just 40 seconds into the power play.
The Beavers extended their advantage just under nine minutes later on Matt Brazel's eighth tally of the season.
Babson, which outshot the Thoroughbreds 39-11 over the first two periods, killed off a penalty early in the second and then scored on its third consecutive power play to make it a three-goal game. Tommy Munichiello took a pass in the slot and stuffed home his own rebound after having his first shot denied by junior Jack McDonald (King City, Ontario) at the 15:13 mark of the middle period for his ninth goal of the year.
Krajnak got Skidmore on the board with his fourth tally of the year on a blast from the left wing at 3:23 of the third to cut the deficit to 3-1. Babson responded with back-to-back goals to extend the lead to 5-1.
The Thoroughbreds pulled McDonald for much of the final eight minutes and took advantage of the extra skater when Leahy poked home a loose puck in front of the net with 5:07 remaining for the final margin.
Babson goalie Jamie Murray made 19 of his 30 saves over the final 20 minutes for the Beavers to move to 13-4-3 on the season.
McDonald finished with 44 stops for Skidmore, which was outshot 49-32 on the night.
