HARRISVILLE, R.I. (12/8/23) – The Nichols College men's hockey fell behind early on Friday night at Levy Rink and were unable to comeplate the comeback into the game in a 5-3 loss to UMass Dartmouth in non-conference action.
Senior
Quinn McCarthy and freshmen
CJ Zezima and
Ryan O'Donnell all found the back of the net for the Bison while; senior's
Jack Goodman,
Philip Bjorkman, junior
Carson Asper, and
Myles Mason all added assists. Senior
Mathias Backstrom stopped 31 shots in the effort for Nichols.
The Corsairs jumped out to a 2-0 lead 12:13 into the first period. The Bison responded nicely scoring 14 seconds later to cut into the lead thanks to O'Donnell's second goal of the season. Goodman chipped the failed dump in by the Corsairs up the wall to O'Donnell who raced over the line with a 2 on 1. O'Donnell deked to his fore hand and ripped a wrist high glove past the netminder.
The Corsairs were not done in the period and grabbed their two goals lead back once again at the 15:48 mark of the period. Just over a minute later McCarthy deflected in a point shot from Bjorkman to cut the lead in half and give the Bison momentum headed into the period. Asper grabbed a secondary assist on the goal. Nichols was out shot 17-10 by UMass Dartmouth in the opening frame.
In the second period, the Bison scored their third goal of the game just under three minutes into the period to draw level. Zezima collected a cleared puck from Mason and raced the other way. He fired a wrist shot just over the pad and under the blocker of the netminder for the equalizer.
UMass Dartmouth regained the lead at the 11:07 mark of the period and took a one goal lead into the locker room with 20 minutes play. The Bison came out of the locker with energy and out shot the Corsairs 12-11 in the period, but it was the Corsairs who found the back of the net once again for a 5-3 lead and the win.
Nichols went 0-4 on the power-play and 4-4 on the penalty kill in the loss. Nichols also controlled the faceoff dot posting a 58.2% win rate.
The Bison play their final game of the 2023 calendar year as they travel to New Haven, to take on Albertus Magnus at 5 p.m.
