EVERETT, Mass. – For the second straight game the Wentworth Institute of Technology ice hockey team used third-period heroics to erase a deficit and pick up a win. Thursday night the Leopards trailed, 2-1, after 40 minutes of play and scored five times to defeat Johnson & Wales, 6-2. Saturday afternoon Wentworth tallied three goals in a span of 5:56 to bounce back from a 2-0 deficit and defeat the Wildcats, 3-2, in a Commonwealth Coast Conference contest played at Allied Veterans Rinks.
With the win the Leopards improve to 2-4 overall and even their CCC record at 2-2. Johnson & Wales falls to 1-4 (1-3) with the setback.
Despite being outshot by a 13-7 margin in the opening period, the Wildcats tallied the lone goal of the stanza, coming at the 6:13 mark when junior Victor Carlsson (Kalmar, Sweden) scored from junior Zach England (Redbank, N.J.).
Wentworth kept applying pressure in the second period and had a 16-10 shot advantage, with nine of those shots coming on four power plays, however, could not find the back of the net. Junior Ethan Weiss (Troy, Mich.) nearly tied it in the period but hit shot rang off the near post. Johnson & Wales, however, added to its lead with a power-play goal of its own when freshman Graham Day (Rochester, Mich.) scored from freshman Jason Recchia (Shelby Township, Mich.) and senior Alan Boozer (Detroit, Mich.).
After going 0-for-10 on their first 10 power plays, the Leopards' three, third-period goals all came on a man advantage. At the 10:31 mark, senior Jake McDonough (Marshfield, Mass.) scored from junior Sean Brennan (Stony Point, N.Y.) to make it a 2-1 game. Sophomore CJ Grinnell (Burlington, Mass.) scored one second into a man advantage when he was fed a pass through the neutral zone from junior Jonny Spada (Glen Rock, N.J.) at 12:50. Junior Matthew Kennedy (Mount Pearl, N.L.) completed the comeback when he scored from junior Angus Johnston (Calgary, Alta.) and Grinnell with 3:33 remaining in regulation.
Johnson & Wales pulled freshman goalie Mike Rockwell (Poughquag, N.Y.) with 56 seconds remaining for an extra attacker and nearly tied the game late, however senior Ryan Hubbard (West Roxbury, Mass.) made a save to keep the hosts ahead.
Hubbard made 21 saves in the win while Rockwell turned aside 36 shots in the setback. Wentworth had a 39-23 shot advantage.
Wentworth is at Nichols on Friday night while Johnson & Wales is at Becker on Thursday.
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