Men’s Hockey Falls Short at Nichols, 4-2

HARRISVILLE, R.I. – Back in action after over a month away, Suffolk men's hockey slipped to Nichols, 4-2, Friday night in Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) action at Levy Rink. 

THE BASICS
SCORE: Suffolk 2 | Nichols 4
RECORDS: Suffolk (2-8-2, 2-6-2 CCC)| Nichols (3-10-1, 2-10-0 CCC)  

HOW IT HAPPENED
Just over eight minutes into the action, Daniel Barry played the puck off the boards too Kaiden Scott, who lofted a go-ahead pass to a wide-open Conor Leonard. Leonard went on a breakaway for a one-on-one with Cal Wilcox, who could not make the glove-side grab and Suffolk fell behind 1-0 early.  

Wilcox was tested again seven minutes later. This time, Austan Bellefeuille skated into the Rams' zone with Lucas Andersson on his right. He slipped the puck over which pulled Wilcox to the right side of the cage. As Andersson charged forward, Nathan Carl snuck on Wilcox back side and Andersson found him right in front. Carl tapped in the puck easily to extend the edge to 2-0 at the 15:37 minute mark.  

Suffolk sliced the gap in half at the 11:01 minute mark in the middle period. Troy Ladka sniped a shot from just inside the left face-off dot that clanged off Tyler Bost's chest pad and bounced off to the right. Peter Nugent was there to pick up the pieces and scored over Bost's right shoulder to trim the gap down to 2-1.  

Nichols tested Wilcox throughout the third and caught him off guard at the 6:20 minute mark. Off a face-off, the Bison fired off three straight shots on Wilcox, all of which he turned aside. The same can't be said on the fourth as Noah Poindexter put away a rebound to restore the two-goal advantage for the host.  

Curtis Carlson looked to seal up the victory for the Bison as he put the puck away with 2:49 left in regulation to push the margin to three, but Olle Akermark responded for the Rams 39 seconds later to bring the gap back to two, 4-2, with 2:10 remaining on the clock.  

Eighteen seconds later the blue-and-gold saw their chances get greater when it went on the player play and eight seconds after that Wilcox was called to the bench to give Suffolk another extra skater. Despite playing 6-on-4, the Rams were unable to break down the Bison defense to overcome the two-goal deficit.   

NETMINDER NOTES

• Wilcox tallied 35 saves. 
• Bost notched 36 stops.  

STATISTICALLY SPEAKING

• Akermark finished with two points on one goal and one assist. 
• Nugent recorded one goal. 
• Samuel Rand, Nick Lachaine and Troy Ladka dished out one helper apiece. 
• Suffolk outshot Nichols, 73-65, however, the Bison put more attempts on target, 40-38. 
• The Rams won the face-off battle, 41-37. 

NOTEWORTHY

• Akermark matched a career-high two goals. 
• Akermark scored his first collegiate goal. 
• Nugent has found the back of the net in back-to-back outings. 
• Ladka, Lachaine and S. Rand all matched personal high assists with one each.  

POST-GAME PIC
  

LOOKING AHEAD
Suffolk will host Nichols in a rematch tomorrow, Saturday, Jan. 22 at 7 p.m. at Emmons Horrigan O'Neil Memorial Rink.