Box Score GORHAM, Maine -- Freshman Connor Pelkey (St. Albans, Vt.) had a goal and an assist to lead the visiting Skidmore College Thoroughbreds to a 3-1, come-from-behind victory over the University of Southern Maine Huskies in ECAC Men's East play Saturday at the USM Ice Arena.
The win gave the Thoroughbreds a split of their weekend trip to Maine after losing Friday night in overtime at the University of New England. The Thoroughbreds improved to 2-1 overall and 1-1 in league play. The Huskies dropped their second straight game to slip to 1-2 overall and 0-2 in ECAC games.
Pelkey tied the game late in the second period when his shot from the blue line found its way through a maze of players in front of USM rookie goaltender Kyle Shapiro (Ocean, N.J.) and into the net. Pelkey later assisted on what proved to be the game-winning goal scored by classmate Mickey Foley (Longmeadow, Mass.) while the team played four aside midway through the third period.
After a scoreless first period, the Huskies took a 1-0 lead at 11:36 of the second period as freshman Alex Pantalone (Hudson, Mass.) pounced on a rebound at the left post and slipped it into the open side of the net. Skidmore junior goalie Ben Freiberg (Weston, Mass.) stopped two shots in close before the rebound slid over to Pantalone. Senior Brad McGovern (Haverhill, Mass.) and rookie Patrick Magliano (Pelham, N.H.) picked up the assists.
Freshman Christian Leahy (Scituate, Mass.) gave the Thoroughbreds an insurance marker with a power-play goal at 17:09 of the third period. Leahy redirected a shot from the blue line by senior Anders Gundersen (Marblehead, Mass.) past Shapiro for his second goal of the season.
Freiberg, making his first appearance of the season, stopped 25 shots to earn the win. Shapiro finished the game with 25 saves, 16 coming in the second period when the Thoroughbreds held a 17-9 advantage in shots on goal.
Southern Maine begins a stretch of six consecutive road games next weekend traveling to Norwich University on Friday (7:00 p.m.). Skidmore returns home for its first home game of the season on Friday (7:00 p.m.) against New England College.
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