GORHAM, Maine – The University of Southern Maine Huskies men's ice hockey team exploded for four goals in the third period en route to a 6-3 victory over the ninth-ranked University of Massachusetts Boston Beacons in an ECAC Men's East game Sunday night at the USM Ice Arena.  The game was a rescheduled contest from Friday due to the blizzard that hit the New England area Friday and Saturday.

            The win snapped an eight-game losing skid for the Huskies, and avenged an earlier 5-2 loss at UMass Boston in December.  The Huskies improve to 7-15-0 overall and 4-11-0 in the league.  The Beacons, unbeaten (7-0-1) in their last eight games, slip to 16-4-2 overall and 9-4-2 in league play.

            Leading 2-1 heading into the third period, the Huskies surrendered a tying goal 51 seconds into the period before getting three consecutive goals to take a 5-2 lead with less than seven minutes to play.

            Freshman Peter MacIntyre (Norfolk, Mass.) tied the game in the third period when his centering pass from the left wing side hit a USM defensive player and ricocheted past freshman goalie Josh Hillegas (Middletown, Wis.).  The goal was the second of the game for MacIntyre, and his team-leading 18th of the season.

            Less than three minutes later, the Huskies regained the lead for good as junior Jamie Osborne (Grand Lake, N.S.) knocked in a pass from classmate Mike Greene (Arvada, Colo.).  Senior captain David Nies (Brookline, Mass.) scored what prove to be the game-winning goal at 5:47 after receiving a pass from Osborne.

            Junior Troy Thibodeau (Danvers, Mass.) made it 5-2 at the 13:42 with the first of his two goals, assisted by sophomore Sam Guimond (Portland, Maine).

            Freshman Jeremy Finger (Orlando, Fla.) broke the string of USM goals for UMass Boston with 1:47 to play.  Thibodeau put the issue to bed with an empty-net goal with 39 ticks remaining.

            The two teams went nearly 37 minutes into the game before either team scored.  MacIntyre's first goal at 16:52 of the second period snapped the scoreless deadlock.  Greene equalized for USM 1:14 later tipping home a pass from Osborne.  Junior Angelo Vrachnas (St. James, N.Y.) stuffed home a power-play goal with 20 remaining in the period to give USM its first lead.

            Hillegas finished the game making 24 saves.  Freshman Zach Andrews (Coral Springs, Fla.) stopped 23 shots before being lifted for the extra attacker with 1:23 to play.

            Southern Maine is back in action Monday afternoon (3:00 p.m.) hosting Babson College in a rescheduled game from Saturday.  UMass Boston will play at the University of New England, also on Monday afternoon.