CANTON, Mass. – Manny Cabral scored a power play goal 3:43 in to get nationally No. 8 ranked Curry College going, and the Keene State College men's ice hockey team could not slow them down much after that as the Colonels raced to a 9-1 win on Friday night at the Canton Ice House.

Curry wound up scoring three times in the opening 11:41 to establish firm control, and then added two more in 5:02 in the second period to make it 6-0.  Marcus Chrisafideis got the Owls on the board with his team-leading 13th goal of the season with a little more than five minutes left in the second to make it 7-1, but Blake Rothstein and leading scorer Eelis Laaksonen found the back of the net 59 seconds apart in the third to set the final margin.  Seven of the home team's nine goals came at even strength, with only the first and last goals coming on the power play.  Curry was 2-for-3 on extra man opportunities, while the Owls were 0-for-2.  KSC had a chance on the power play down three goals with about seven minutes to go in the first period, but was limited to just one shot – a Peter Unger attempt that went wide – on that chance, and the Colonels later added another from Casper Soderling to take a commanding 4-0 lead into the first intermission.  It was the first time the Owls allowed four goals in a period this season.

Ben Skelton made 18 saves in the opening 25:02 for KSC before Ethan Swanson played the final 34:58 and made 27 stops.  Cam Smith finished with 14 saves in the winning effort for Curry.

Eight different Colonels had multi-point nights, including a pair of goals for Rothstein.  Laaksonen had two goals and an assist, while George Vonakis and Nolan McDonaugh each had a goal and two assists.  Gage Dill had three helpers for Curry, which also dominated the faceoff dot 43-16.

"That's really the first time we felt like we were never in the game," said Owls head coach Bobby Rodrigue.  "Curry is a really good team.  You need to find ways to make it hard on good teams, but we made it very easy for them tonight.  We'll need to be better tomorrow."

Tonight marked KSC's first game against a nationally-ranked program in the Division III era.  The Colonels are coming off a 21-6-1 (15-3 CNE) campaign a season ago, reaching the NCAA tournament quarterfinals before falling 4-3 in four overtimes to eventual national champion Hobart College.  It was Curry's first NCAA appearance since 2011 and fourth overall.

Keene State will begin league play in a 10-team Little East Conference with an NCAA automatic berth next season.

The Owls conclude a stretch of five consecutive road games tomorrow (Saturday, January 11) against Nichols College (5-6-2, 2-4-2 CNE) at 4:40 p.m.  The Bison play their home contests a Levy Rink in Harrisville, R.I.  Curry will host Nichols for a conference contest next Friday at 7:00 p.m.