HARRISVILLE, R.I. – Freshman Filip Virgili scored a pair of goals in Nichols College's 3-3 tie with Wentworth Institute of Technology Friday night in Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) men's ice hockey action at Levy Rink.
 
Sophomore Nicholas Mangone also scored while junior Matthew Menta picked up a pair of assists for the Bison, who outshot the Leopards 38-28 but converted on just one of their nine power-play opportunities. Sophomore Connor Beaudet potted the game-tying goal for WIT with less than eight minutes remaining in regulation while senior Jake McDonough collected two apples.
 
Mangone opened the scoring at 12:53 of the first when he banged in a rebound off a shot by sophomore Hogan Davidson. Davidson broke down the left wing, cut across the crease and banged a shot off the pads of Ryan Hubbard, but Mangone followed the play and put the puck inside the left post.
 
The Leopards tied the game less than three minutes later on Johnston's fourth goal of the season. He stole an outlet pass at the blue line, skated in and let a wrist shot go from the top of the circle that eluded Nichols senior goaltender Colin Brennan at 14:39.
 
In the second, Menta sent a long pass from his own end to senior captain Scott Cuthrell in the neutral zone. The captain skated into the offensive zone and send a pass to Virgili that he redirected past senior goalie Ryan Hubbard at 2:11. The Leopards evened the score on the power-play at 5:20 on junior Matthew Kennedy's second tally of the campaign. He took a pass near the right post, cut in front and squeezed the puck past Brennan.
 
Nichols regained the lead at 3-2 in the third with the power-play at 6:40. Menta let a shot go from the point that was redirected twice, first by sophomore J.B. Baker in the high slot and then Virgili in tight. Later in the stanza, Beaudet redirected a shot from sophomore Connor Busch with the man advantage at 14:13 to knot the score at three.
 
Brennan finished with 25 saves and moved to 3-2-2. Hubbard, meanwhile, turned aside 35 shots and now stands at 2-3-1.
 
All-Time Series
Tonight's contest marks the 40th all-time meeting between Nichols College and Wentworth. Nichols is 2-0-1 in the last three and has won eight of the last 10 to grab a 20-18-2 lead in the series.
 
Next up
Nichols (3-2-2, 2-1-2 CCC) – Saturday, November 18 @ Nichols, 2:00 p.m.
Wentworth (2-4-1, 2-2-1 CCC) – Saturday, November 18 vs Nichols, 2:00 p.m.