HARRISVILLE, R.I. – Junior Matthew Menta scored his second goal of the season 1:04 into overtime to lift the Nichols College men's ice hockey team to a 3-2 win over Suffolk University Saturday night in Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) action at Levy Rink.
 
Senior captain Scott Cuthrell and junior Ian Spencer each handed out two assists while freshman Oliver Arnberg potted his first collegiate goal and classmate Nate Foster tallied his first collegiate point. At the other end of the ice, senior netminder Colin Brennan stopped 26 shots to move to 3-1-0 this season.
 
Freshmen Jack Kelly and Jared McCracken each registered their first collegiate goals for the Rams.
 
Kelly's goal at 12:11 of the second opened the scoring and gave the visitors a 1-0 lead. Arnberg tied the game when he redirected a point shot from sophomore David Chevrier past sophomore goalie Will Ribas at 19:12. Foster dug the puck out of the corner and slid the puck to Chevrier at the point to earn the second apple.
 
Sophomore Vincent Crivello scored his second goal in as many games 5:15 into the third to put the Bison ahead 2-1, jamming a pack past Ribas. Just over three minutes later, McCracken broke in alone on Brennan and beat him with a wrist shot over the blocker to knot the score at two.
 
In overtime, Spencer fed Cuthrell along the left wing boards with a breakout pass. The captain slid the puck down the Menta, who walked in beat Ribas with a backhand shot through the legs for the winner.
 
The Bison outshot the Rams 30-28 and scored on one of their three PP chances. The Rams were 0-for-2 with the extra attacker. Ribas finished his night with 27 saves.
 
All-Time Series
Tonight's contest marked the 49th all-time meeting between Nichols College and Suffolk University. With this weekend's sweep, the Bison are 4-0-1 in their last five with the Rams, but trail the series 25-20-4.
 
Quotes
"It's extremely hard to sweep these back-to-backs. It doesn't matter if you're playing the first place team or the last place team. They were a desperate hockey team and they played really hard tonight. At the end of the game, we got the bounce." –Nichols College head coach Parker Burgess
 
"He's always had the potential. He really committed himself this off-season to get into better shape to play more minutes. When you're a defenseman playing heavy minutes, you have to be in excellent shape. He stayed in town this summer and really committed himself and has been playing really well for us." –Burgess, on the play of defenseman Ian Spencer
 
Next up
Nichols (3-1-0, 2-0-0 CCC) – Friday, November 10 vs UNE, 6:40 p.m.
Suffolk (1-2-0, 0-2-0 CCC) – Friday, November 10 @ Salve Regina, 7:00 p.m.