SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Junior Tony Giacin (St. Louis, Mo.) scored two goals and passed out three assists to lead the Skidmore College Thoroughbreds to an 8-3 victory over the visiting University of Southern Maine Huskies in an ECAC Men's East contest Friday night.

            The win was the third in the last four games for the Thoroughbreds, and gave them a split of the teams' season series.  The Thoroughbreds moved above the .500 mark win the win, improving to 8-7-2 overall and 5-4-1 in league play.  The Huskies dipped to 6-10-0 overall and 3-7-0 in ECAC play.

            Skidmore scored six unanswered goals to build a 6-0 lead over the first two periods before Southern Maine tried to mount a comeback with three goals in the opening 5:11 of the third period.

            Junior Aaron Beck (Maribel, Wis.) also had two goals and dished out one assist for Skidmore.  Rookie goalie Ben Freiberg (Weston, Mass.) stopped 33 shots, including 15 in the final period, to earn his fifth win of the season.

            Junior Angelo Vrachnas (St. James, N.Y.) scored twice for Southern Maine.  Classmate Mike Greene (Arvada, Colo.) had the other goal for the Huskies.  Sophomore Ryan Seward (Part Jefferson, N.Y.) and senior Jon Grandinetti (Ottawa, Ontario) each had two assists.

            Skidmore grabbed a 2-0 lead in the opening 4:08 of play on goals from freshman Ondrej Krajnak (Presov, Slovakia) and junior Vlad Gavrik (Kharkiv, Ukraine).  Southern Maine was unable to slip a shot past Freiberg despite having four power plays in the opening period.

            Beck and sophomore Andres Gundersen (Marblehead, Mass.) scored goals 29 seconds apart in the second period to double the Skidmore lead.  Giacin lit the lamp midway through the stanza to make it 5-0, and sophomore Dave Limoges (Saint-Hippolyte, Quebec) found the net at 13:36.

            Vrachnas got USM on the board in the opening minute of the third period with a power-play marker set up by Seward and Grandinetti.  Greene potted his third goal of the season at 3:50, and Vrachnas notched his seventh of the campaign at 5:11 to cut the deficit to 6-3.

            Beck dashed any further hopes of a USM comeback with his second goal of the night at 11:04, and Giacin finished off the scoring with a power-play goal at 18:53.

            Southern Maine finished the game outshooting Skidmore, 36-30, including an 18-6 advantage in the final period.  Skidmore netted three power-play goals in seven opportunities.

            The Huskies travel to Rutland, Vt., on Saturday (4:00 p.m.) to play Castleton State College.  The Thoroughbreds look to make it two in a row hosting the University of New England on Saturday (4:00 p.m.).