Department of athletics, physical education and recreation
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Engineers Ease Past Bridgewater State, 11-3
Jan. 17, 2008
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - MIT exploded for its highest offensive output in over a year on Wednesday night, as the Engineers received goals from eight different players en route to an 11-3 victory over Bridgewater State College in the Johnson Ice Rink. Forward Nick LaBounty was Tech's only multi-goal scorer, as the junior found the back of the net four times to push his team-leading goal-total to 13. The Cardinal and Gray's 11-goal outburst was the team's highest since it matched that total in an 11-1 win over Western Connecticut State University on Dec. 11, 2006. Meanwhile, LaBounty became the first Engineer to score four goals in a game since Tim Studley did it in a 9-0 triumph over Springfield College on Feb. 3 of last year. MIT moved to 7-1-0 overall and a division-best 5-1-0 in the NorthEast Collegiate Hockey Association (NECHA) Conference A East Division with the win. Bridgewater State fell to 6-7-0 overall and 0-5-0 in the division with the setback. Junior forward Ryan Ballentine and sophomore defenseman Kevin Farino each had one goal and three assists, while sophomore forward Dustin Kendrick contributed three helpers. LaBounty got the scoring started midway through the first period when he finished feeds from Joseph Fahey and Brad Holschuh, and the Engineers never looked back. Ballentine (from Eddie Sturm), Ian Rousseau (from Kendrick and Bill Near) and LaBounty (from Ballentine and Farino) each scored first-period goals to extend Tech's advantage to 4-0 after 20 minutes. LaBounty secured his hat-trick at 14:35 of the second stanza, with Ballentine and Farino once again the providers. The Bears pulled one back six minutes later, as Tim Shea and Mike Logan provided the assists for Chris Boyle's strike to make it 5-1, but it was as close as the visitors would get. Three goals in less than two minutes extended MIT's lead to 8-1, as LaBounty (from Fahey and Paul Puskarich), Fahey (from Ballentine and LaBounty) and Mike Kozlowski (from Justin Myers and Vladimir Sobes) all scored between the 6:20 and 4:26 marks of the second period. Chris Boyle scored again for Bridgewater State, courtesy of assists from Nick Winter and Jack Dean, to make the score 8-2 heading into the final period of play. Farino, who leads all MIT defensemen with three goals and five assists for eight points, scored with 16:02 remaining in regulation with assists credited to Rousseau and Kendrick. Graduate student Nicholas Maietta, returning for his first game since a semester abroad, then notched his first goal of the season to push Tech's lead to 10-2 with under nine minutes remaining. Assists were credited to Kendrick and Farino. Tim Shea (from Mike Durden and Wayne Peebles) scored for Bridgewater State with 5:51 remaining before rookie Cory Phinney rounded out the scoring with his second intercollegiate goal courtesy of assists from Riley Brandt and Puskarich. Graduate student Thomas Hopkins, who is maintaining a 1.50 goals-against-average for the season, made 28 saves in net for MIT to earn the victory. Sophomore John Simmons stopped 32 shots between the pipes for the Bears. The Engineers will return to action on Saturday, Jan. 19, when they will travel to Biddeford, Maine to take on the University of New England at 8:30 p.m. Bridgewater State will also hit the road for its next contest, which will be on Friday, Jan. 18 at 9:00 p.m. at Northeastern University. |
