BUFFALO, N.Y. – David Tolan scored with 2:38 left in regulation to give Buffalo State University their third one-goal lead of the game, and this time it stood up as the Bengals went on to score an empty net goal two minutes later to hand the Keene State College men's ice hockey team a 4-2 loss in the 2025 Outdoor Classic held at a freezing cold Buffalo Riverworks on Friday evening.

It proved to be a unique experience akin to that of the National Hockey League's Winter Classic games for the Owls in their inaugural season, who wore player-designed uniforms that featured a Keene State seal logo on the front and player names on the back.  After a six-plus hour bus venture mostly on the New York thruway on Thursday and a hotel stay on Thursday night, gametime temperatures struggled to remain at 20 degrees, with feels like temperatures lower than that.

Against a team that entered 10-6-0 including a 5-1 SUNYAC mark that was coming off a 3-0 loss to top-ranked Hobart College, KSC (7-10-1) battled, getting a tying goal from Chase Carney off a perfect feed from Kyle Gonzalez behind the net at 18:42 of the first period to make it 1-1.  The Bengals retook the lead halfway through the third when Drayton Todoroff scored unassisted as he intercepted the Owls' pass up the boards and shot through traffic past Ben Skelton.  Buffalo State's go-ahead goal came just two minutes after an unsuccessful KSC power play, as Reilly Moyer made two big saves on leading scorer Marcus Chrisafideis to keep it 1-1.

Keene State got another power play just 16 seconds after the Bengals went up 2-1 as Todoroff went off for tripping, and this time cashed in toward the end of the chance as Luke Festa ripped a shot from the left faceoff dot off a back pass by Joe Fontaine to tie it at two with 8:49 to go.  It marked KSC's third consecutive game with a power play goal and 13th on the season.  They finished 1-for-2 on the night and bounced back from a 1-for-4 outing in which they also allowed two shorthanded breakaway goals in a 4-2 loss to Fitchburg State University on Monday.

What proved to be the game-winning goal on this night did, however, come off a KSC mistake as the Owls turned the puck over in their own zone and the errant pass found Tolan for essentially a walk-in shot that beat Skelton glove side that put the Bengals up 3-2 with less than three minutes left.

The Owls had plenty of offensive zone time in the ensuing shift, but Moyer made three saves – none of which were of immense danger.  A Carney shot from distance beyond the right faceoff dot with 1:45 left was tippable, but there was not enough traffic in front and Moyer kicked it out with his right kneepad.  KSC pulled Skelton with 1:18 left, but could not find an equalizer despite an offensive zone faceoff following a Bengals' icing with 54 ticks left.  Aiden Dufault's empty net goal 26 seconds later helped salt away the result for the Owls, who are 3-6-1 away from Keene Ice.

"This was an awesome experience for the boys.  Obviously it would have been better to get a win, but still a very special event," said Owls head coach Bobby Rodrigue.  "We were a bit disorganized in the first period but I thought the boys played very good hockey over the final 40 minutes.  Skelton was great again."

Vadim Kiriakov finished with a goal and an assist for Buffalo State.  He opened the scoring with 12:35 left in the first before assisting on Tolan's eventual game-winning goal.  Carney's tally that tied it at one marked his ninth goal of the season to go along with nine assists.

Skelton finished with 37 saves in 59:09 for KSC including 15 of 16 in the opening period as the Owls started slowly and were outshot 16-3.  Moyer finished with 20 stops, 11 coming in the third period.

The Owls return home for four consecutive games at Keene Ice beginning on Tuesday (January 28) against St. Anselm College (11-8-2, 10-3-1 Northeast-10) at 7:45 p.m.  Buffalo State visits the State University of New York at Fredonia (5-12-0, 3-3-0 SUNYAC) on the same night (7:00 p.m.).