UMass Boston Downs Ice Hockey 8-3
Framingham, Mass. - Junior forward Matt Atsoff (Maconb, MI) collected two goals and two assists to lead the UMass Boston Beacons to an 8-3 win over the Framingham State College ice hockey team tonight in non-conference action at Loring Arena. With the win the Beacons improve to 2-1 on the season, while the loss drops the Rams to 1-4-1.
UMass Boston took a 2-0 lead just eight minutes into the game on a power play goal from Bryan Albert (Redlands, CA) at 4:37 and an Eric Tufman (Abington, PA) goal at 8:08. The Rams battled back and cut the lead back to one goal at 2-1 before the intermission on freshman Ben Pacific's (Marlborough, MA) first collegiate goal.
UMass Boston extended the lead back to two with John Hubbard's (Arlington, TX) first of two goals at 10:30 in the second. The Rams responded as their leading scorer and current MASCAC Player of the Week Joe Hurley (Charlestown, MA) scored his team leading fifth of the season at 11:22 to pull the Rams back within one at 3-2. Atsoff would give the Beacons the lead for good with what proved to be the game winner with 46 seconds remaining in the period.
The Rams would pull within one at 3:20 of the third on senior Jeremy Schmidt's (Huffman, TX) first goal of the season, but that would be as close as they would get as the Beacons scored four goals unanswered goals in the final 14 minutes. Michael Crowder (Flint, MI) scored at 7:47 and less than a minute later Hubbard added his second of the game for a three goal lead. Albert added his second of the day at 11:05 and Atsoff added an unassisted tally at 19:30 to finish the scoring.
Framingham State freshman goalie Billy Sias (Bloomington, MN) made his first start between the pipes for the Rams, making 49 saves, while Kevin Bendel made 16 saves for the Beacons and picked up his first win.
The Rams return to action on Thursday night December 3rd as they host Salem State at Loring Arena at 7:20 p.m., while the Beacons face Stonehill at the P.A.L. Stove Pipe Tournament on Saturday at 1:30 p.m.