HARRISVILLE, R.I. – The Nichols men's hockey team picked up a big win in Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) play against Western New England on Friday night by the score of 4-2. The win was Nichols' third in a row and improved their record to 9-13-0 (5-13-0 CCC). The Golden Bears fell to 7-14-1 (5-12-1 CCC).
 
Despite Nichols possessing the puck for the majority of the first period, Western New England found themselves up 1-0 heading into the second thanks to a Sam Mitchell goal. Nichols outshot the Golden Bears 16-6 in the period.
 
Nichols came out strong once again in the second period, applying constant pressure in the Western New England zone. Bison forward Josh Dickson was finally able to sneak one past the goaltender off a nice pass from Quinn McCarthy to knot the score up at one 2:08 into the second. A little over six minutes later, Nichols senior Hunter Fraser put one through the five-hole of Western New England goalie Colton Lancaster to give the Bison the 2-1 lead.
 
The Golden Bears found themselves on the power play early in the third period and they were able to capitalize when a bouncing puck in front of the net found the stick of Justin Sullivan, who buried it past Mathias Backstrom to tie the game at two. Nichols wasted no time taking the lead back when Kaiden Scott carried the puck around the net and found Nathan Carl who snuck it past Lancaster for the 3-2 lead. The Bison were able to hold off Western New England the rest of the way and Scott put an exclamation point on the game with an empty netter with two seconds remaining to give Nichols the 4-2 win.
 
Jack Lee, Luke Harvey, and Owen Gonter all picked up assists in the win. Backstrom was solid in net once again for the Bison, stopping 24 shots enroute to his sixth win of the season.
 
Nichols looks to extend their win streak to four on Saturday night when they travel to Biddeford, Maine to take on No. 11 University of New England with the puck set to drop at 7:00 p.m.