BUFFALO, N.Y. – Junior Ian Spencer picked up a goal and an assist in Nichols College's 4-3 loss to Buffalo State Saturday afternoon in non-conference men's ice hockey action at the Buffalo State Ice Arena.
 
Senior Scott Cuthrell registered two assists for the Bison – giving him four points in the opening two games of the season – and both senior Ryan Hunter and junior Matthew Menta scored their first goals for the season.
 
The Bengals rallied from an early 2-0 deficit to win their season-opener, ripping off four unanswered goals and finishing with a 25-8 lead in shots. Sophomore Andrew Passero potted two goals for Buffalo State while junior Mac Wood added a pair of helpers.
 
Menta's goal 2:42 into the contest off feeds from Cuthrell and senior Chris Deming opened the scoring. Less than four minutes later, Hunter found the back of the net against his former school to double the lead at 5:41. Sophomore Nicholas Mangone was credited with an assist on the goal, his second in as many nights.
 
The Bengals got one back on the power play in the first to make it 2-1 after 20 minutes of action. After tying the score at two 26 seconds into the second period, Passano's put the Bengals in front 3-2 with a marker at 9:00. He added an insurance tally with 1:23 left in the stanza.
 
Nichols climbed to within one at 4-3 on Spencer's fifth career goal and third point of the campaign just 1:10 into the third. Senior netminder Colin Brennan turned aside 21 shots as his record moved to 1-1-0 on the young season. Senior Ian Sylves made five saves for the Bengals, who were 1-for-6 with the man advantage and a perfect 3-for-3 on the PK.
 
All-Time Series
Today's contest marked the second all-time meeting between Nichols College and Buffalo State. The Bengals moved to 2-0-0 with the win.
 
Next up
Nichols (1-1-0) – Friday, November 3 @ Suffolk, 7:00 p.m.
Buffalo St. (1-0-0) – Friday, November 3 @ SUNY Geneseo, 7:00 p.m.