Nor'Easters Storm Past Hockey in Leopards' Road Finale

BIDDEFORD, Maine – Freshmen Adam Canepa (Santa Cruz, Calif.) and Ryan Burr (Toms River, N.J.) each scored a pair of goals to power the University of New England men's ice hockey team to a 7-0 shutout of Wentworth Institute of Technology at the Harold Alfond Forum.

UNE (12-9-2, 8-7-2 Commonwealth Coast Conference) continued its dominance at home, concluding the regular season with a 9-1-1 mark inside the confines of the Alfond Forum. Wentworth dropped to 5-16-3 overall, 3-12-2 in conference play.

In addition to two goals apiece from Canepa and Burr, senior Trevor Fleurent (Biddeford, Maine), sophomore Armand Uomoleale (Westport, Conn.) and junior Ian Rodden (Berwick, Maine) found the scoring column for the winners.

Wentworth carried the play in the early going, peppering UNE with 10 shots on goal in the opening 10 minutes of the first period. The Nor'easters would stem the tide at 12:52 of the frame when Canepa roofed a wrist shot from the mid slot.

The Nor'easters put the game away with a trio of goals in the middle period. Burr scored consecutive goals at 6:48 of the stanza and 15:09 before Trevor Fleurent tallied just inside of the two-minute mark. Burr's first goal came on a slap shot from the right point, and his second was a laser that went right under the crossbar with UNE on a power play. Fleurent's goal also came with a man-advantage.

UNE scored three more goals in the final period. Canepa notched his second of the evening at 3:51, re-directing a shot by Rodden into the cage. Uomoleale scored less than two minutes later when he tipped in the puck from the right doorstep. Rodden then went top shelf with a slap shot to complete the scoring at 13:26.

Senior Blaise Healy (Melrose, Mass.) had a pair of assists in the victory.

Freshman Payton Porter (Houlton, Maine) recorded the shutout in goal in his first collegiate start. He turned aside 26 shots, including three as the Nor'easters killed off a five-minute Wentworth power play late in the final frame.

The Leopards' best scoring chance of the evening came with less than 30 seconds remaining in the first period, but a short-handed scoring bid by Sophomore Sam Levin (Simsbury, Conn.) connected with pipe.

All three Wentworth goaltenders in uniform saw action. Junior Ryan Hubbard (West Roxbury, Mass.) had 17 saves in 35:09 of ice time before giving way to freshman Kenny Graham (Milton, Mass.), who totaled nine stops in 18:47 of playing time. Sophomore Griffin Cady (Falmouth, Maine) took the ice for the final 6:04 of the contest.

Both teams will play makeup games early next week. UNE travels to Massachusetts to take on Becker College Monday at 2:40 p.m. to close out the regular season while the Leopards host Western New England University in the season finale on Tuesday (5:15 p.m.).

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