Golden Bears upend Seahawks in key playoff contest, 5-1

PORTSMOUTH, R.I. - Junior Mike Kaselouskas (East Longmeadow, Mass.) scored a pair of goals and dished out two assists to help the Western New England College men's ice hockey team snap a five-game losing streak with a 5-1 win over Salve Regina University in Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Northeast action Wednesday night at Portsmouth Abbey Arena.

Sophomore T.J. Fatse (Hampden, Mass.) made 37 saves for the Golden Bears, who improved to 6-15-1 (3-8-0 ECAC) on the season and moved past Suffolk University and into the sixth and final playoff position in the ECAC with six points. The win was just the third for WNEC in its last 18 games (3-15-0). Senior Brett Pimental (East Falmouth, Mass.) scored his sixth goal of the season for the Seahawks (2-17-1, 1-9-0 ECAC), who remain four points out of a playoff berth with four conference games remaining.

The Seahawks hoped to carry the momentum gained from a 5-4 come-from-behind win against Stonehill less than 24 hours prior into the contest and gain their first home win of the season, but Kaselouskas' team-leading 14th goal of the season 2:27 into the game put them behind the eight-ball early. Kaselouskas carried the puck down the right wing boards and wristed a shot from a sharp angle that found its way through the pads of freshman goalie Ernest Foss (Rochester, N.H.). Sophomore Blake Lucier (Scarborough, Maine) potted his second goal of the season at 9:37 when he skated around an SRU defender and chipped the puck past Foss, who was replaced by classmate J.C. Turgeon (Sherbrooke, Quebec) after allowing two goals on six shots.

Salve Regina cut the deficit in half on Pimental's tally at 12:07 of the first period. Freshman Chad Hollenshade (Lutherville, Md.) sent an outlet pass up the middle to Pimental, who broke in alone on Fatse and wristed a shot over his glove hand. The Seahawks closed the period with a 17-6 edge in shots.

The only goal of the second period came off the stick of WNEC freshman Dan Monahan (Monroe, N.J.), who finished off a pass from junior Kory Grahl (San Diego, Calif.) with a forehand shot in close on Turgeon. In the third, Salve Regina senior Joe Colaianni (Monroe, N.Y.) and sophomore Mike Cenisio (Chadds Ford, Pa.) each received game misconduct penalties for tripping and elbowing, respectively. WNEC took advantage of the man advantage and went ahead 4-1 when junior Rory Hansen (Noblesville, Ind.) converted a feed from Kaselouskas into his 10th marker of the season at 16:20. Kaselouskas sealed the win with an empty netter at 19:46.

The Seahawks outshot the Golden Bears 38-26 on the evening, but were outshot 30-21 after the first period. Western New England capitalized on two of its seven chances with the extra skater while the Seahawks went 0-for-4.

Salve Regina returns to action on Saturday when they host Curry College at 7:45 p.m. The Golden Bears return to "The Ocean State' on Saturday for a 7:20 p.m. game at Johnson & Wales.