SCHENECTADY, N.Y. – Behind an offensive outburst and a 22-save effort by senior Connor Murphy, the Union College men's hockey team rolled to a 5-1 victory over Bentley University Thursday night at Messa Rink.

Union's power-play woes came to an end as the power-play unit went 3-for-7, while the penalty kill went a perfect 4-for-4 on the night. The last time Union scored three power-play goals in a game was on February 2, 2019 against Colgate.

Five Dutchmen recorded a multi-point night in the victory. Junior Tyler Watkins had a big game for Union, scoring his first career multi-goal game, including two of Union's three power-play goals. First-year John Prokop registered three assists for his first career multi-point game. Junior Chaz Smedsrud and first-year Nate Hanley each chipped in a goal and an assist, while first-year Carter Korpi also tallied two assists. Sophomore Caden Villegas scored his second goal of the season.

The Union offense came out firing, recording 20 shots on goal in the first period alone. Union scored less than five minutes into the game after Tucker Hodgson was called for tripping at 4:15. After a great feed from Prokop, Watkins fired a shot from the top of the right circle to open the scoring. Only 4:26 later, Watkins found the back of the net again. The initial shot from Prokop was saved, but Korpi picked up the loose puck in front and Watkins tapped it in for his second power-play goal of the night.

Union continued to put the pressure on Bentley in the second period with Villegas scoring at 2:03 of the frame. A shot from Hanley from the left side was tapped in by Villegas to give Union a 3-0 lead.  Smedsrud joined the scoring with his first goal of the season on the powerplay at 11:04 of the middle stanza. Off a faceoff in the offensive zone, Korpi dished the puck back to Prokop hovering near the blue line. The defender sent a shot that Smedsrud redirected into the net for the score.

Leading 4-0 going into the final period, Union once again found the back of the net within the first five minutes of the period. Hanley intercepted a pass in the slot and buried it to give Union a 5-0 lead. With only 1:15 to go in the game, Bentley broke the shutout bid off the stick of Cooper Connell.

Nicholas Grabko takes the loss for Bentley with 22 saves in 31:04 minutes of play. Connor Hasley made eight stops in 28:56 of work.

Union will hit the road to face Rochester Institute of Technology on Saturday. Puck drop is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. at Blue Cross Arena.