HENNIKER, N.H. – Denior Joe Osaka (Tokyo, Japan) scored a pair of goals and sophomore Daniel Bergqvist (Sundsvall, Sweden) had a goal and an assist as the New England College hockey team defeated Wentworth Institute of Technology, 5-1, in non-conference action on Saturday afternoon.
Winners of four straight, the Pilgrims improve to 6-4-0 overall while the Leopards fall to 2-6-1.
New England College scored just 62 seconds into the contest as Osaka put home a pass from sophomore Adam Zollner (Varnamo, Sweden). Just under 12 minutes later the Pilgrims increased their lead to 2-0 when Bergqvist scored from freshman Isac Nordstrom (Hammaro, Sweden) and junior Connor Fries (Barnstable, Mass.).
The Pilgrims scored a pair of early, second-period goals set apart by just 42 seconds to take a 4-0 lead. At 2:37 of the frame, sophomore Keenan Haase (Mission Viejo, Calif.) scored from Bergqvist and sophomore Carlos Fornaris (Miami, Fla.). Freshman Cole Skelly (Mount Arlington, N.J.) fed senior Bryce Nielsen (Laguna Hills, Calif.) on a breakaway at 3:19.
Wentworth got on the board at the 9:44 mark of the frame as sophomore Georgy Gorodetskii (Yekaterinburg, Russia) scored on the power play from junior Matthew Kennedy (Mount Pearl, N.L.) and senior Jake McDonough (Marshfield, Mass.). With 24 seconds remaining in the period, Osaka scored what would be the final goal of the contest, coming on the power play from freshman Nicholas Rein (Calgary, Alta.) and junior Mike Whitehair (Victor, N.Y.).
Senior Kyle Shapiro (Ocean Township, N.J.) made 29 saves for New England College while sophomore Kenny Graham (Milton, Mass.) made 32 stops for Wentworth. The Pilgrims had a 37-30 shot advantage.
Wentworth is at Southern Maine on Sunday afternoon.
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