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Date: January 28, 2006
Contact: Bill Sodoma

 

Southern Maine men's hockey edges Colby, 5-4

GORHAM, Maine -- Freshman defenseman Brett O'Neill (Lucasville, Nova Scotia) scored a power-play goal early in the third period to snap a 4-4 tie and give the University of Southern Maine Huskies a 5-4 victory over the Colby College Mules Saturday afternoon in an ECAC Division III game at the USM Ice Arena.

Colby, ranked 15th in this week's USCHO.com Division III poll, fall to 11-7-0 overall and 7-6-0 in league play.

The Mules held two leads in the game at 1-0 and 3-2, but Southern Maine scored three goals in the final two periods to Colby's one.

The teams traded goals in the first three minutes of play as junior Patrick Rutherford (Truro, Nova Scotia) scored at 1:35 for Colby and senior Matt Mendoza (West Chatham, Mass.) combined with Kelleher to get the Huskies even at 2:58. Kelleher gave the Huskies a 2-1 lead at 10:12 before sophomore T.J. Kelley (Ridgefield, Conn.) scored a pair of goals 1:42 apart late in the period to give the Mules a 3-2 lead after a period. Sophomore Josh Reber (Edina, Minn.) assisted on both goals.

Southern Maine scored a pair of power play goals seven seconds apart midway through the second period to regain the lead.

Sophomore Joe Rothwell (Unionville, Ontario) tied the game for the Mules with a power-play goal at 15:00 on a pretty passing play from Kelley and junior Greg Osborne (Stoughton, Mass.).

Colby returns home to host Hamilton College on Friday (7:00 p.m.) and Amherst College on Saturday (4:00 p.m.).

Colby (11-7-0; 7-6-0) 3 1 0 4

Southern Maine (7-10-2; 5-6-2) 2 2 1 5

1st Period: 1. C, Patrick Rutherford (Joel Covelli, Adam Carlson) 1:35; 2. SM, Matt Mendoza (Neil Kelleher) 2:58; 3. SM, Kelleher (Bobby Siers, Mike Stevens) 10:12; 4. C, T.J. Kelley (Josh Reber) 15:09; 5. C, Kelley (Reber) 16:51.

2nd Period: 6. SM, Stevens (Brett Yancey, Chris Sparkes) (pp) 9:46; 7. SM, Mark Carragher (James LeBlanc) (pp) 9:53; 8. C, Joe Rothwell (Kelley, Greg Osborne) (pp) 15:00.

3rd Period: 9. SM, Brett O'Neill (Kyle Smith, Kelleher) (pp) 5:10.

Goalies: C, Andy Cook (11:55, 4 shots, 2 saves), Ben Grandjean 5-3-0 (48:05, 30-27) SM, David Beckles 3-5-1 (28-24)

Power-Play Opportunities: C, 1 for 7 SM, 3 for 6

Shots On Goal: C 11-12-5 = 28 SM, 7-15-12 = 34