(Courtesy of Skidmore Sports Information)

Huskies Play at Castleton State on Saturday

            SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. -- The Skidmore College hockey team marked its return to ECAC East play with a 5-2 win over Southern Maine, Friday night at the Saratoga Springs City Rink.

            Playing its first conference game in six weeks, Skidmore improved to 2-7-0 in league play and 3-11-2 overall. The Huskies are 1-9-0 and 3-12-0.  The Thoroughbreds earned the season sweep that included a 3-1 win over USM on Nov. 8.

            The Thoroughbreds took a 2-0 lead in the first.  Sophomore Marc Cibelli (Liverpool, N.Y.) scored on a give-and-go from junior Ondrej Krajnak (Presov, Slovakia) at 12:39.  Sophomore Anthony Bird (Central Square, N.Y.) started the play to earn an assist.  Bird made it 2-0 on a power-play goal at 14:08 when he one-timed a cross-crease pass from Krajnak for his fourth goal of the season.

            Senior Thomas Park (Framingham, Mass.) made it 3-0 with his first goal of the season at 8:23 of the second from rookie Andreas Michailidis (Stamford, Conn.).  Southern Maine got on the board late in the period on sophomore Todd Bannerman's (Georgetown, Ont.) power-play goal at 14:46 from senior Stephen Gallo (Barnstead, N.H.) and rookie Victor Ivarsson (Stockholm, Sweden).

            The Thoroughbreds killed off a 1:33 5-on-3 that spanned the end of the second period and first 52 seconds of the second period.  Skidmore didn't allow a shot over the final 52 seconds of the penalties.  The Thoroughbred penalty kill produced the fourth goal when Cibelli and Krajnak teamed up on a two-on-one breakaway for a short-handed tally by Cibelli at 12:00.

            Skidmore was whistled for 11 of the game's 16 penalties, including all four called in the third period.

            With a power play and Huskies' rookie goalie Kyle Shapiro (Ocean, N.J.) on the bench for second extra player, USM made it interesting when junior Zach Dymock (Dutton, Ont.) scored at 17:58 to cut it to 4-2.  Junior Daniel Mattsson (Uppsala, Sweden) and Gallo assisted.

            The Thoroughbreds put an end to the threat when rookie Jack Sloan (Zionsville, Ind.) was able to clear the puck into the empty net for a short-handed goal at 19:24.

            USM outshot Skidmore 31-25 and converted 2-of-9 power plays, while the Thoroughbreds went 1-for-3 on the power play, all in the first period.

            Skidmore sophomore goalie Jack McDonald (King City, Ont.) had 29 saves, while Shapiro stopped 20 shots.

            The Thoroughbreds host the University of New England on Saturday (4:00 p.m.) while Southern Maine travels to Castleton State on Saturday (4:00 p.m.). 

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