SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – The nationally 13^th-ranked Skidmore College men's hockey team swept travel partner Vermont State University Castleton with a 5-3 win on home ice on Saturday evening. The Thoroughbreds defeated the Spartans on Friday in Rutland, 4-1.
 

• Skidmore (14-3-2, 9-2-1 NEHC) has a three-point cushion for second place in the New England Hockey Conference with 28 points. The Thoroughbreds have won five straight after losing their only three games of the year against top-seven teams prior.
• Castleton is 7-12 overall and 4-8 for 12 points in the conference. If the season ended today, Castleton would go to Skidmore for a quarterfinal matchup.
• Jack Strauss scored twice for Skidmore. Kevin Urquhart assisted on them both. Strauss scored the first goal of the game, shorthanded, just past the midway point of the first period. He scored again at 10:38 of the second period to make it 2-0.
• After two Castleton goals just 83 seconds removed from one another tied the game at two, Jacob Zwirecki scored with exactly five seconds left in the middle period to give Skidmore a 3-2 lead. Nick Cozzi and Mason Beecher had the assists on the 3-on-1 rush.
• Skidmore scored twice more, both on the power play, in the third period to make it 5-2. Danny Magnuson scored the first insurance marker at 3:18 of the third period. Stephen Perez and Everett Wardle assisted.
• Cooper Rice got Skidmores's fifth goal at 12:33 with Kaeden Patrick and Perez helpers.
• Andrew Stefura, who scored Castleton's first goal, got his second goal with 5:07 remaining in regulation for the 5-3 final. Both were on the power play.
• Both teams went 2-for-5 with the man advantage.
• Shots finished 37-22 Skidmore.
• Tate Brandon made 19 saves for Skidmore. Dominic Rodrigue had 32 for the visitors.
• The all-time series with Castleton is now tied at 16-16-4. Skidmore is 8-1-2 in the last 11 meetings.

NEXT UP: Skidmore will look to keep the streak going next weekend when it hits the road to visit New England College and #11 Norwich.