Box Score

PAWTUCKET, R.I. – Junior Joe Sposit (Cleveland, Ohio) broke a one-all tie with his second goal of the season late in the third to lift the Nichols College men's ice hockey team to a 3-1 win at Johnson & Wales (RI) in Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Northeast action Saturday night at Lynch Arena.
 
Sophomore Sean Fleming (Easthampton, Mass.) and sophomore Daniel Bufis (Linden, N.J.) also scored for the Bison (4-1-1, 3-1-1 ECACNE), who also received 22 saves from sophomore and reigning ECAC Northeast Goalie of the Year Alex Larson (Madison, Ala.).
 
Nichols jumped to the 1-0 advantage just 8:11 into the contest when Fleming put in a pass from freshman Mike Weaver (Wakefield, Mass.) after freshman Sean Swansen (Salem, N.H.) fed the puck to the front of the net. 
 
JWU senior Eddie Patterson (Cinnimanson, N.J.) tallied the equalizer for at the 11:11 mark of the first when he scored a power-play goal with assists to sophomore Aaron Arm (Plantation, Fla.) and sophomore Luke Nickels (Chicago, Ill.). The two teams went into the locker room tied at one at the first intermission with Nichols holding a 14-5 advantage in shots for the stanza.
 
In the second period, both teams had solid scoring chances, but neither could capitalize as the stanza ended in a 1-1 tie. JWU held the 10-8 advantage in shots during the period.
 
With just 5:23 left in regulation, Bison sophomore Frank Butler (East Haven, Conn.) won the face-off and sent it to Sposit, who hit a one-timer into the corner of the net to put the Bison up 2-1. Bufis added an empty-net goal with under a minute remaining to close the scoring.
 
Freshman Joey Ballmer (Kalamazoo, Mich.) tallied 32 stops in the loss for the Wildcats (4-2-0, 3-2-0 ECACNE).
 
Nichols returns to action next Saturday when it opens the Worcester City Ice Hockey Shootout against Worcester State at 4:45 p.m. The Wildcats will return to action on Tuesday, November 26th when they travel to Assumption for a non-conference contest at 7:35 p.m.

Contributions from Johnson & Wales (RI) sports information