This content originally appeared on SNHUPenmen.com
Five different Penmen found the back of the net and sophomore Kurt Gutting (Weymouth, Mass.) registered a career-high 37 saves on Saturday, as the Southern New Hampshire University ice hockey team skated to a 5-2 victory over Suffolk University at the Ice Den.
Senior Matt McLelland (Reading, Mass.) led the SNHU offense with a pair of assists, as eight different Penmen etched their names on the scoresheet against the Rams.
The hosts jumped out to a 2-0 advantage less than eight minutes into the opening stanza on goals from senior Kyle Valliere (Goffstown, N.H.) and sophomore Jared Goudreau (Manchester, N.H.). Valliere broke the scoreless stalemate at 4:18 when he scooped up a Suffolk turnover on the doorstep, went forehand-backhand and tucked it inside the right post. The lead doubled just over three minutes later, as Goudreau redirected a blast off the stick of freshman Zack Ciampa (Revere, Mass.) with 12:38 left in the first.
The Southern New Hampshire lead ballooned to five in the second, as the Penmen struck three times to effectively put the game out of reach. Senior Timothy Baylis (West Haven, Conn.) started the three-goal spurt 7:33 into the frame. After catching a pass from McLelland behind the Rams’ defense, Baylis walked in all alone to beat the visiting netminder for his fourth of the year. Junior Artem Efimov-Barakov (Khimki, Russia) extended the cushion to four with just over four minutes left in the period when he gathered the puck in his defensive end, navigated through the neutral zone and unloaded a wrister to the top left corner for his second of the season. Senior Chris Moquin (Hooksett, N.H.) capped the SNHU scoring on the powerplay with 45 ticks to go in the second, as he collected a feed from sophomore Brett Strawn (Wareham, Mass.) beneath the goal line and punched it home short-side.
Suffolk attempted to mount a comeback in the third with a pair of markers. Tommy Bishop got the Rams on the board at 4:52 with his fourth of the year from David Lappin and Connor Parent. Brian Brooks accounted for the final margin of scoring with 3:46 left in regulation off a feed from Connor Henry.
Gutting upped his record to 2-0 on the season after his 37-save performance. Michael Levine was saddled with the lost after stopping 12 of the 16 shots he faced in the opening 35:50 of play. Will Ribas provided 24:10 of relief and registered eight saves on nine shots.
Southern New Hampshire returns to action on Tuesday (January 16) when it makes the trip to Waterbury, Connecticut for a 7:30 p.m. faceoff against Post University.
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