BIDDEFORD, Maine – Freshman Austin Morgan (Novi, Mich.) scored two goals and added an assist – all in the first period – as the University of New England ice hockey team used a four-goal opening frame to defeat Wentworth Institute of Technology.
With the win, the Nor'Easters – ranked 12th in the USCHO.com Division III Men's Poll and 13th in the D3Hockey.com Top 15 – improve to 14-4-1 overall and 8-3-0 in Commonwealth Coast Conference play while the Leopards fall to 6-9-4 (4-6-1).
Morgan's two goals came at 7:08 and 14:29, respectively, and were sandwiched around a sophomore Tyler Seltenreich (Littleton, Colo.) at 11:33. Morgan picked up the assist on junior Dimitris Jones' marker with 1:42 left in the period to make it 4-0.
UNE tacked on a fifth goal at the 12:41 mark of the second period when sophomore Brett Mecrones (Medford, Mass.). Wentworth got on the board at the 14:48 mark of the period as junior Adam Tracey (Sleepy Hollow, N.Y.) scored from classmate Nate Chase (Plainfield, Ill.) and senior Ethan Weiss (Troy, Mich.).
Just 1:10 into the third period, Wentworth cut the lead to 5-2, thanks to a freshman Joey O'Leary (Boston, mass.) goal. At the 12:12 mark, Seltenreich scored to begin a run of both teams combining for three goals in a 40-second span, which made the score 6-2. Just 18 seconds later, Chase made it 6-3 on a goal assisted by junior Georgy Gorodetsky (Yekaterinburg, Russia). However, junior Liam Neuman (Newmarket, Ont.) scored 22 seconds later to put the hosts back on top by four goals. Markers from sophomore Brendan Donohue (New Hope, Pa.) and freshman Timmy Kent (Parkland, Fla.) completed the scoring on the night.
A total of six Nor'Easter players had multiple-point games while sophomore Ben Churchfield (Newcastle, England) made 21 saves. Freshman Ryan Bonnvie (Falmouth, Maine) made eight saves in the first period before giving way to classmate Thomas Draper (Binghamton, N.Y.) who made 24 stops over the final 40 minutes. UNE had a 41-24 shot advantage.
The two teams complete their weekend series Saturday afternoon at Allied Veterans Rink.
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