SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – An offensive explosion lifted the Skidmore College hockey team to a four-point NEHC weekend, tallying a season-high in goals with a 5-2 victory over New England College, at the Saratoga City Rink Saturday afternoon.
 
The Thoroughbreds (4-16-1, 2-11-1 NEHC) pick up four points after Friday's 2-1 win against Southern Maine, sitting in a tie for seventh place with five points. New England College (11-8-2, 6-7-1 NEHC) stays in fifth with the loss.
 
The rookies provided the spark in Saturday's victory, with Brandon Borges and Kayser Raei leading the Thoroughbreds with three points apiece. Borges netted a pair of second-period goals, adding an assist in the third period, while Raei assisted twice and added a third-period goal. Fellow freshman Tyler Hall also scored, with Paul Vella adding a pair of assists. Matt Muzyka added an assist to finish the freshman scoring. Corey Morgan opened the game with a goal, while Connor Pelkey and Owen Campbell added assists. Brandon Kasel was phenomenal in net for the first two periods, finishing with 30 saves.
 
Adam Zollner and Daniel Bergqvist provided goals for the Pilgrims, with Patrick DeBlois, Carlos, Fornaris, and Zollner bagging assists. Kyle Shapiro finished with 25 saves.
 
Continuing recent tradition, Skidmore struck the first blow early with a Morgan tip in front of net at the 5:36 mark of the first period. Campbell and Pelkey provided the assists. Skidmore has struck first in six of the last seven games. The Thoroughbreds doubled the score at the 14:36 mark, taking advantage of a power-play opportunity. Just 20 seconds into the man-advantage, Muzyka found Hall with a one-timer above the faceoff circle. Vella added the assist.
 
Borges took over for the Thoroughbreds in the second period, increasing Skidmore's lead to three, getting a stick in on a Raei shot, redirecting the puck past the NEC goalie at the 14:06 mark. 2:24 later, on the Skidmore attack, Raei found Borges, who made a move to pull the Pilgrims goalie out of position, patiently skating around a diving Shapiro to score in the empty net.
 
New England College made things interesting with a pair of goals 2:12 apart in the third period, cutting the deficit in half at the 10:07 mark. Skidmore put the game away late in the third, with Borges finding Raei on the 2-on-1. Raei pushed a high shot past Shapiro to put the finishing touches on the victory.
 
Skidmore went 1-for-6 on the power play, killing 4-of-5 NEC power-play chances. Matt Wolf was solid in the circle, winning 12-of-16 face-offs.
 
The Thoroughbreds will wrap up the home portion of the schedule next weekend, beginning with a return visit from UMass Boston on Friday at 7 p.m.