BEVERLY, Mass. – The Endicott men's ice hockey team buried five goals in the first period, and relied on freshman goaltender Kevin Aldridge (Beverly Hills, Mich.) the rest of the way to secure a 5-3 victory against Wentworth on Saturday evening at Raymond J. Bourque Arena.
Endicott raced out to a 2-0 lead less than three minutes into the contest as Lloyd Hayes (West Newbury, Mass.) and Ross Olsson (Billerica, Mass.) scored at 1:29 and 2:53, respectively, to send the Gulls raucous student section into a frenzy.
Wentworth's bench immediately called a timeout after the second goal to quell Endicott's home ice advantage and the strategy paid off as both teams were held scoreless until Leopards freshman defenseman Jonny Spada (Glen Rock, N.J.) found the back of the net at the 6:28 mark for his first career goal.
The spark provided by the timeout for Wentworth was short-lived, however, as Endicott freshman forward Parker Wood (Rochester Hills, Mich.) sent home his team-leading fourth goal of the season into the net just 12-seconds later to bump the gap back to two goals (3-1) for the Gulls.
Classmate Alexander Bonito (Buffalo, N.Y.) followed with his first career goal at 10:12, while Josh Bowes (Sturgeon County, Alberta, Canada) capped the scoring at 15:13 to take a 5-1 advantage into the first intermission.
After both teams cooled down in the second period, the Leopards put together a comeback bid in the third with goals from Chris Sattler (East Longmeadow, Mass.) and Mike Cox (Marlborough, Mass.) at 1:13 and 3:03, respectively, to make it a 5-3 contest.
Aldridge settled for the remainder of the game as the freshman netminder recorded 17 saves over the final 16:57 of action to preserve the win.
BEYOND THE BOX SCORE
- Aldridge stopped a career-high 51 shots in the win (2-1-2), including a 20 in the final period.
- Thomas Daniels (St. Louis, Mo.) won a team-high nine faceoffs for Endicott.
- Olsson and Andrew Cross (Saugus, Mass.) finished a game-high plus-2 rating in the win.
- Bowes, Olsson, Wood, and Joseph Slovak (South Yarmouth, Mass.) all finished with multi-point games.
- Current Endicott head coach R.J. Tolan served as Wentworth's head coach for eight seasons (2006-2014) prior to his appointment as the Gulls head coach.
- Tolan compiled a 128-74-16 record during his time as the Leopards head coach.
FOR THE FOES
- Cox won a game-high 13 faceoffs in the loss.
- Wentworth outshot Endicott, 54-27.
- Backup goaltender Matt Jenkins (Mount Pearl, N.L.) made 19 saves in 48:03 of playing time.
WHAT'S NEXT
Endicott (2-1-2, 2-1-1 ECAC Northeast) travels to Johnson and Wales University on Thursday, November 19 for a conference matchup at 6:45 p.m. Wentworth (3-2-1, 2-1-1 ECAC Northeast) hosts Suffolk next Tuesday in a league game at 7 p.m. For the latest on Endicott Athletics, follow the Gulls on social media on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube.
