Seahawks soar past Becker

PORTSMOUTH, R.I – The Salve Regina men's ice hockey team raced out to a 3-0 lead early in the first period and never looked back as the Seahawks went on to defeat Becker, 5-2, in ECAC Northeast action, Saturday afternoon. The win for Salve Regina improves the Seahawks to 4-1 on the season and 2-1 in the conference while Becker slips to 0-4-1 and 0-2-1 in the league.

Sophomore Peter Gintoli (Monroe, Conn.) took control of the loose puck in front of the net just 2:41 into play and shot it past the Becker goalie to give Salve Regina a quick 1-0 lead. Just over a minute later after winning a faceoff in their offensive zone, freshman Trace Redmond (Dallas, Texas) got help from senior Chad Hollenshade (Lutherville, Md.) and sophomore Marc Biggs (Plano, Texas) on his first collegiate goal to push the Seahawk lead to 2-0.

On their first power play of the game, freshman Jonathan Felteau (Peabody, Mass.) scored what turned out to be the game-winning goal off a sharp pass from sophomore Alec Butler (Marlborough, Mass.) just over five minutes into the first period.

Hawks' junior Cody Edwards (Kansas City, Mo.) won the opening faceoff after a Seahawk penalty and after his initial shot was saved by Salve Regina junior goalie Jake Williams (Montreal, Canada), Edwards pushed his second shot into the net to cut the Seahawk lead to 3-1.

After the quick scoring to open the game, Hawk goalie Greg Hussey (Medford, Mass.) made 12 saves over the final 12 minutes of action to keep the lead to just two goals in favor of the Seahawks.

Sophomore Lucas Sousa (Billerica, Mass.) pushed the Seahawk lead to 4-1 with his first goal of the season off a pair of passes from Biggs and junior Michael Naso (Londonberry, N.H.) halfway through the second period. Shortly after killing off a power play chance for the Hawks, Biggs got help from Gintoli and Naso on his second goal of the season to give Salve Regina 5-1 lead with 4:14 to play in the second. The Seahawks and Hawks each successfully killed the two final power player opportunities to end the period 5-1.

 Junior Chris Fink (Gig Harbor, Wash.) netted his first goal of the season after the Hawks won a faceoff in their zone during their first power play chance of the third period to cut the lead to 5-2.

The Seahawks continued to test Hussey to close out the game, as the netminder needed eight saves over the final 10 minutes of action to keep the lead to three goals.

Williams ended the game with 19 saves in the net for Salve Regina while his Hawk counterpart needed 33.

Salve Regina returns to the ice for its final home game of the 2013 calendar year when the Seahawks host Curry at St. George's Ice Arena. The men's ice hockey team is partnering with the women's team in raising awareness for the Epilepsy Foundation of New England.