SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – The Skidmore College men's hockey team opened New England Hockey Conference (NEHC) play with a 3-2 victory over Babson College on Friday night in the first of two against the Beavers. The event was Skidmore's annual Pack the Rink event as well as Senior Day in front of a crowd near 1,000.

• The Thoroughbreds, ranked ninth nationally, survived some surges from visiting Babson- a team looking for its second ranked win.
• Skidmore used a late first-period goal from Cooper Rice and second-period tallies by Ethan Heidepriem and Evan Brown to build a 3-0 lead. Babson got one more back on a 5-on-3 opportunity in the third, but the Skidmore defense and goalie Joshua Seeley shut the door the rest of the way.
• Seeley made 23 saves to improve to 2-0 on the young season for the Thoroughbreds.
• Heidepriem finished with two points on a goal and an assist. Freddie Ilias led all Skidmore players with two assists. Kevin Urquhart, Zach Frisk, and Zach Lindewirth each pitched in with assists.
• Both Beaver goals were on the power play. Brendan Murphy played a part in them both with a goal and an assist.
• Babson had Skidmore on its heels early. The Beavers raced to a 7-1 shot advantage over the first seven minutes and change. The Thoroughbreds got their feet under them, and it went back-and-forth until, on the power play, Rice jammed in a rebound off a Frisk tip on a point shot by Ilias with 1:26 left in the period to make it 1-0.
• Heidepriem fanned on his first shot but beat the goalie on the recollect at 5:58 of the second to make it 2-0. Lindewirth made a nifty behind-the-back pass from the corner out to Heidepriem in front to set up the goal.
• Babson cut the deficit in half at 12:41 on a rush.
• Skidmore got it back just under two minutes later. After an Ilias pinch to keep the puck in the zone, Heidepriem found the rookie Brown in the slot. Brown used the defenseman as a screen to beat the goalie Rosado on a shot that he got a piece of, but it trickled past the line to give Skidmore a 3-1 lead.
• Babson needed just 35 seconds of a two-man advantage to get it back to within one at 5:15 of the third. Charlie Andriole scored for the visitors on a one-timer from the point.
• Seeley recorded six saves the rest of the way to preserve the Skidmore win.
• Babson was called for a roughing penalty with 1:45 remaining to hamper the final comeback attempt.
• Shots finished 25-21 Babson. Both teams had five power-play chances. Babson was 2-for-5, and Skidmore was 1-for-5.
• Skidmore finished with a narrow 35-31 faceoff edge, but Babson blocked 21 shots to Skidmore's 15.
• In a pregame ceremony, Skidmore honored its 12 seniors: Danny Magnuson, Stephen Perez, Freddie Ilias, Kevin Urquhart, Jaden York, Kaeden Patrick, Jack Strauss, Zach Frisk, Ethan Heidepriem, Will Dow-Kenny, Blaine Moore, Zach Lindewirth.

UP NEXT
Skidmore and Babson will close out the weekend series Saturday at 4 p.m.

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