JWU slips past Seahawks on senior day

PORTSMOUTH, R.I. – The Johnson & Wales Wildcats scored two late third period goals to spoil the Salve Regina men's ice hockey senior night, 2-0, at the Portsmouth Abbey.

With the win, the Wildcats improve to 17-6-1 on the year and 7-5-1 in the conference while the Seahawks slip to 11-14 on the season and finish their ECAC Northeast schedule at 9-5 and earn the number three seed in the conference tournament.

Freshman Stefan Brucato (Lake Elsinore, Calif.) broke the 0-0 tie 8:02 into the third period with his sixth goal of the season as he collected the puck in traffic in front of the net, 2:28 into a five minute power play for the Wildcats. JWU took the first and only lead of the game, 1-0.

With 5:14 remaining on the clock, freshman Ben Brouillard (Somerset, Mass.) got the puck off a rebound and fed it back to senior Eddie Patterson (Cinnaminson, N.J.) who promptly got it to freshman Fran Mackin (Philadelphia, Pa.) for his sixth goal of the year to give Johnson & Wales a 2-0 lead with just over five to play.

At the 3:03 mark, the Seahawks pulled their sophomore goalies David Chiokadze (Langhorne, Pa.) in favor of an extra attacke for the remainder of the contest but could not get the puck past senior goalie Brad Atkinson (Huntington Beach, Calif.). Salve Regina recorded five shots on the net in the final three minutes and kept the puck out of an empty net but Johnson & Wales held on to its 2-0 lead.

Chiokadze finished the day with 29 saves while Atkinson earned the win with 17 saves in goal. Junior Ben Kantor (Pembroke Pines, Fla.) started the game In goal for the Wildcats and recorded 18 saves over 31:22 minutes.

Salve Regina earned the number three seed in the conference and will host the number six seed, Curry or Western New England on Saturday. Johnson & Wales finishes out its conference schedule on Tuesday at home against Curry.