WEST SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – The Wentworth Institute of Technology ice hockey team raced out to a 3-0 lead and held on to defeat Western New England, 3-2, in a pivotal Commonwealth Coast Conference contest Saturday afternoon at the Olympia Ice Arena.
The Leopards pick up their first conference series sweep since taking a pair of games from Johnson & Wales on November 9-11 and improve to 7-11-3 overall and 5-6-3 in league play while the Golden Bears fall to 8-11-2 (3-10-1).
Wentworth netted the only goals of the first period and both came in a 52-second span as sophomore Georgy Gorodetskii (Yekaterinburg, Russia) picked up a power-play goal, which was assisted by juniors Jonny Spada (Glen Rock, N.J.) and Matthew Kennedy (Mount Pearl, N.L.). at 13:05. Sophomore CJ Grinnell (Burlington, Mass.) gave the Black & Gold a 2-0 lead with his goal from junior Ethan Weiss (Troy, N.Y.) and senior Jake McDonough (Marshfield, Mass.). Wentworth had a slim, 10-8 shot advantage in the opening frame.
The Leopards used another special teams goal to up their lead to 3-0 at 5:59 of the second period as Grinnell and McDonough set up sophomore Connor Busch (Lake in the Hills, Ill.) for the power-play goal. However, Western New England jumped on the board 46 seconds later as junior CJ Totillo (Brooklyn, N.Y.) set up classmate David Kleyman (Brooklyn, N.Y.).
At the 3:53 mark, the Golden Bears trimmed the lead to one as junior Matt O'Dea (Orland Park, Ill.) scored from senior Matt Smethurst (Rexford, N.Y.) and junior Steve Beck (Milton, N.Y.). With 35 seconds left, sophomore Kyle Carducci (Hartford, Conn.) was pulled for an extra attacker. The hosts had a pair of shot attempts, however one was blocked by Weiss and one went wide as the Leopards held on.
Senior Ryan Hubbard (West Roxbury, Mass.) made 25 saves in the win while Carducci made 14 saves in relief of junior Kevin Gollmer (Flourtown, Pa.) who made 13 stops in the first 25:59. Wentworth had a 30-27 shot advantage and was 2-for-5 on the power play while killing off all three of their shorthanded situations.
Wentworth hosts Becker Friday night.
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