Men’s Hockey Ties Conn. College, Drops Shootout in Codfish Bowl

BOSTON – Suffolk men's hockey took the lead and held onto it until the final 30 seconds before Connecticut College tied things up and forced overtime where neither team scored to have the second semifinal contest of the 58th Codfish Bowl end in a 1-1 draw. The Camels won the shootout, 3-2, to earn a spot in the Codfish Bowl Championship. 

Suffolk, meanwhile, will skate for the Codfish Bowl Consolation contest tomorrow, Saturday, Jan. 6 against Worcester at 1 p.m.   

THE BASICS
SCORE: Suffolk 1 | Connecticut College 1
RECORDS: Suffolk (2-10-2) | Connecticut College (3-5-1)  

HOW IT HAPPENED
Suffolk broke open the scoring in the middle period. Devin Lowe picked up possession of the puck in the Rams zone and sent it along the left side boards ahead to Ralph Berry in the neutral zone. Berry zoomed in Camels' territory with Ryan Webb on his right. The Rams' rookie slipped a pass to a diving Webb. Conn. College's netminder Sean Dynan went to transition to the right side of the cage, but Webb shot five hole in the meantime to put the blue-and-gold on the board at the 14:28 mark. and broke open the scoring at the 14:28 mark.  

The Camels could not figure out Suffolk newcomer CJ Hapward in between the pipes. The junior was near perfection until the final 30 seconds in regulation when Cole Eichler leveled the playing field. John Russo's shot from the right face-off dot was denied and flew out to Eichler in the opposite face-off circle. He wasted little time to fire the shot on target, which caught Hapward off guard and made it a 1-1 game with 25 seconds left in the third.  

Suffolk played a skater down at the midway point of the overtime as Cole Scott went to the pen for two minutes for tripping. The Rams defense came up big on the penalty kill with four blocked shots and Hapward denied the two he saw to keep the Camels from victory.

The teams traded shots in the first round of the shootout before Devin Lowe gave Suffolk a 2-1 upper hand. Daniel McKiernan could have put things away for the Rams, but the freshman's attempt was off the mark and Reid Shafer leveled things at 2-2. Things remained that way until the seventh round. After Scott's shot was saved by Dynan, Andre Eberling snuck the puck past Hapward to push the Camels to the championship.  

NETMINDER NOTES

• Hapward registered 40 saves in the stalemate. 
• Dynan finished with 25 saves. 

STATISTICALLY SPEAKING

• Webb scored Suffolk's lone goal. 
• Berry and Lowe dished out one assist each. 
• Connecticut College outshot the Rams, 41-26. 
• Suffolk went 0-for-4 on the power play and successfully skated off its three penalties including one in overtime. 
• Face-offs were nearly even. The Camels had the upper hand though, 38-34.  

NOTEWORTHY

• The Rams made their sixth appearance in the Codfish Bowl, first since 2014. 
• Suffolk went into overtime in the Codfish Bowl for the second time, first since the consolation contest in 2007, a 4-3 loss to Southern New Hampshire, Nov. 29, 2007. 
• The Rams moved to 0-1-1 in OT in the Codfish Bowl in program history. 
• The Rams went into overtime for the third time this season. 
• Suffolk moved to 0-1-2 in OT in 2023-24. 
• Suffolk is now 2-2-5 when exceeding regulation with McEachern on the bench. 
• Suffolk went to a shootout for the second time this season. 
• The Rams went to a shootout for the first time in non-conference action. 
• Overall, the rams are 3-4 in shootouts in program history. 
• Suffolk and Conn. College met for the first time. 
• Hapward made his Suffolk debut. 
• Webb logged his fourth goal of the season. 
• Lowe set up his ninth strike of the year. 
• Berry dished out his second assist of the campaign.  

WHAT'S NEXT?
Suffolk will clash with Worcester State in the 58th Codfish Bowl Consolation game tomorrow, Saturday, Jan. 6 at 1 p.m.