Feb. 16, 2009

AMHERST, Mass. - The Endicott College men's ice hockey team defeated UMass-Amherst in the NECHA Quarter-finals on Monday afternoon by a score of 8-1. The Gulls improve to 10-10-2 this season and will move onto the NECHA Semifinals with the win. Endicott's Chris Linnehan (East Longmeadow, Mass.) had a pair of goals to go along with three assists.

Endicott took a 1-0 lead in the first period as Brett Erickson (Leominster, Mass.) got a shot past the net minder with passes from Matt Guidotti (Lebanon, N.H.) and Linnehan. The Gulls defense would hold the lead through the rest of the period as Endicott took the one-goal edge into the first intermission.

After the first break, the Gulls came out and put another three goals on the board. The first two came just about one minute apart at 13:35 and 12:28. Mark Gaudreau (Pittsfield, Vt.) put the first goal on the board on a power-play while Greg Dorman (Merrimack, N.H.) scored the second, giving the Gulls a 3-0 lead. Nearly three minutes later, Chris Linnehan scored his first goal of the game to put the game out of reach.

In the final period, the Gulls tallied four more scores while giving up only one goal to UMass. Mark Gaudreau scored his second goal of the game at the 19:42 mark of the third period. A mere :14 seconds later, UMass' Reed Powers finally got the Minutemen on the board to make the score 5-1. Endicott closed out the game with three more unanswered goals to make the final score, 8-1, and move onto the next round. John Clarke (West Hartford, Conn.), Patrick Kennedy (Weymouth, Mass.) and Chris Linnehan scored the goals for the Gulls.

Endicott's Matthew Murray (Billerica, Mass.) picked up the win in net for the Gulls by making 27 saves on 28 shots while UMass' Mark Leonard took the loss.

The Gulls NECHA Semi-final game will be played on Saturday, February 21st at a time and place to be determined.

For full NECHA Playoff coverage, please click here