(With contributions from New England College Sports Information)

            HENNIKER, N.H. – The New England College Pilgrims men's ice hockey team scored four unanswered goals to defeat the University of Southern Maine Huskies 4-1 in ECAC Men's East action Saturday at Lee Clement Arena.  The game was the regular season finale for both teams.

            With the win, the Pilgrims extended their current unbeaten streak to four games (2-0-2) and improved to 9-12-4 overall and 7-8-3 in league play.  The Pilgrims also swept the team's regular season series taking both games by 4-1 scores.  The Huskies finished the regular season 7-18-0 overall and 4-14-0 in ECAC games.

            After a scoreless first period that saw the Huskies out shoot the Pilgrims 10-4, the Huskies broke the stalemate at 11:40 of the second period when freshman Alex Pompeo (Hingham, Mass.) scored his eighth goal of the season off a feed from sophomore Brad McGovern (Haverhill, Mass.).

            NEC would get the equalizer at the 16:29 as junior Sam Turunen (Joensuu, Finland) would poke in a shot off the stick of classmate Patrick Corcoran (Philadelphia, Pa.) that would deflect off a Huskie defender.  The Pilgrims would then take the 2-1 with just over a minute to play in the period as senior Ben Souders (Downington, Pa.) would knock in the rebound of a Jonathan Boxill (Bracknell, England) shot.

            Junior Ben MacLaughlin (Beverly, Mass.) would give the Pilgrims some breathing room at the 10:38 mark in the third period as he netted his fifth goal of the season.  The Pilgrims would tack on an empty-netter off the stick of sophomore James O'Reilly (Charleston, S. C.) in the final minute of play.

            Southern Maine finished the game out shooting the Pilgrims 37-23.

            Picking up the win in net for NEC was senior Shawn Sirman (Blezard Valley, Ontario) who finished the game with 26 saves.  In net for Southern Maine was freshman Josh Hillegas (Middleton, Wis.) who tallied 19 saves.

            The teams will await the announcement of the seedings for the upcoming ECAC Men's East Championship Tournament that begins next Saturday.