Box Score
WILLIAMSTOWN -- Coming off their first win of the season, the Ephs met the Babson College Beavers who came into Williamstown with an even 2-2 record after a 4-2 win at Skidmore.
After allowing the game's first goal, the Ephs quickly bounced back, finishing the first period with three unanswered goals of their own. After the first period the Ephs would not look back as they controlled possession of the puck as well of the pace of the game for the remainder of the night. The Ephs sealed the deal in the third period, tacking on two more goals en route to a 5-2 victory.
Early in the first period, play was back and forth with scoring opportunities coming from both teams. The Ephs took an early penalty but were able to fight off the Beavers' man advantage. Shortly after the Ephs returned to even strength, Babson's Cody Carlson scored the Beavers' first goal.
The Ephs responded powerfully with three consecutive goals. The first was scored by Matt Doyle '14 as he fired a wrist shot from the left side. Doyle was assisted by Ryan Scott '12 and Peter Mistretta '15. The second Williams College goal also came by way of a wrister from Justin Troiani '12, assisted by Mistretta and Mike Brofft '13. The final goal of the period came with under one second left on the clock as Nick Anderson '14 crossed the puck to John Wickman '13 who netted the puck just before the clock read zero.
A physical second period brought about several opportunities for both teams' power plays to get on the ice. The Beavers penalty kill made its first appearance eight minutes into the second period and their power play ended the second period 0-for-4 as a result of sturdy goaltending by the Ephs' freshman goalie Sean Dougherty. Although the play of each team's penalty kill proved to be more prevalent as the second period was a scoreless one, both teams saw several scoring opportunities.
The second period was somewhat of an uneventful one as Head Coach Bill Kangas noted that the penalties that the Ephs took in the second period slowed things down and changed the flow of the game.
"I thought the penalties we took in the second period kind of got us into a little bit of a funk," said Kangas. "We took four penalties and we really just lost our rhythm in the second period."
The Ephs battled back after a stalemate of a second period. They opened the third with a man advantage and scored in the first minute of play. As the Beavers' goaltender lunged for a loose puck, he found himself too far out of position to save the shot of Cody Skinner '13. Skinner's goal quickly renewed the Ephs momentum and Mistretta would tack on one last goal around the midway point of the third period. The Beavers' freshman Andrew Bonazza added one last goal in the closing minutes to make the final score to 5-2.
In the first start of his career, the Ephs' Sean Dougherty turned aside 28 of 30 shots to record the win, while Babson's Danny Rivellini stopped 31 of 36 Eph attempts.
Kangas was happy with his team's strong finish. In the season's two first games, the Ephs let up late goals that would force overtime.
"The guys kept talking about it on the bench, finish strong, finish strong...I think over all it was a good effort," said Kangas. "That's our three game home stand, we're 2-1 at home and now we start on the road Sunday."
The Ephs hit the road this coming weekend as they kick off a five-game road trip at Manhattanville at 3 PM on Sunday.
