SCHENECTADY, NY -- The Union College men's ice hockey team provided an impressive victory to mark Head Coach Rick Bennett's 100th career victory, a 5-3 win over #3 Boston University at Messa Rink Saturday night. It was the highest team to be defeated at Messa Rink since January 28, 2011 when Union downed Yale, 3-2.
Boston University fell ot 0-1 while the Dutchmen are now 1-0-1.
Union goaltender Alex Sakellaropoulos made 31 saves, including 14 in the first period, and BU had a slim 34-31 shot advantage. The Dutchmen had five different scorers in the victory.
Union opened the scoring at 6:03 of the first as Ryan Carfo scored a power play tally with assists from Nick DeSimone and Michael Pontarelli. BU evened it up at 1-1 on a Matt Lane tally with assists from Doyle Somerby and Bobo Carpenter at 15:20. Ryan Cloonen gave the Terriers a 2-1 lead with just 2:18 remaining in the period, as Mike Moran and Doyle Somerby provided the helpers, and it was 2-1 after the first.
Pontarelli tied it up for Union with just 1:58 remaining in the second period. Sebastian Vidmar and Ryan Scarfo got the assists. Eli Lichtenwald put Union ahead 3-2 after assists from Brendan Taylor and Connor Light at 2:47 of the third, but the Terriers tied it on a Charlie McAvoy tally at 15:24 from Nikolas Olsson.
Both goaltenders made many big stops throughout the night. As time wound down, with 6:52 left, Sakellaropoulos robbed BU's A.J. Greer with a right pad save. Union then got the eventual game winner at 17:11 as Mike Vecchione sent a pass to Brett Supinski, who had a shot that was stopped but Matt Wilkins banged in the rebound for the 4-3 lead. Wilkins fed Spencer Foo for an empty netter with 46 seconds remaining.
Union has five straight home games remaining in the month, as Maine comes to town next weekend for 7 p.m. games Friday and Saturday.
