Huskies Close Regular Season Next Saturday at New England College

            SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. -- Freshman Nicolas Stuckless (Orangeville, Ontario) scored a pair of goals to lead the Skidmore College Thoroughbreds to a 5-1 win over the visiting University of Southern Maine Huskies in a New England Hockey Conference men's game Saturday at Saratoga City Rink.

            The win snapped a three-game losing skid for the Thoroughbreds and improved their record to 11-8-4 and 7-7-2 in NEHC.  The Huskies slipped to 7-14-3 overall and 6-9-2 in conference.

            Stuckless tallied what proved to be the game-winning goal late in the first period to give Skidmore a 2-0 lead.  Classmate Nicholas Charron (Spencerport, N.Y.) gave the Thoroughbreds a 1-0 advantage at 4:13 of the period.

            The teams traded goals in the second period to make it 3-1 after 40 minutes.  Rookie Matthew Monk (Langley, B.C.) scored his first collegiate goal at 5:17 to increase the Thoroughbreds lead to 3-0.  Less than two minutes later, USM sophomore Michael Green (Baie d'Urfã, Quebec) tallied a power-play goal to get the Huskies on the board.  Junior Maverick Lynes (Sherwood Park, Alberta) and sophomore Adam Withers (Kenora, Ontario) were credited with the assists.

            Sophomore William Brochu (Laval, Quebec) and Stuckless scored goals 1:14 apart early in the third period to add some insurance for the Thoroughbreds.

            Freshman Matthew Rutigliano (Upton, Mass.) and senior John Litscher (Haymarket, Va.) each had a pair of assists for the Thoroughbreds.

            Skidmore outshot Southern Maine 38-30 for the game, and was 1 for 6 on the power play.  Southern Maine was 1 for 5 with the man advantage.  Senior goalie Brandon Kasel (Ithaca, N.Y.) finished with 29 saves in the Skidmore net.  Junior Anthony D'Aloisio (Frisco, Texas) stopped 33 shots at the other end for USM.

            Southern Maine finishes the regular season next Saturday (4 p.m.) with a game at New England College.  Skidmore closes the regular season with road games at Babson College on Friday (7 p.m.) and the University of Massachusetts Boston on Saturday (4 p.m.).

            The top eight teams in the NEHC standings after next weekend's games will advance to the championship tournament that begins with the quarterfinal round on February 22.

-ble-