KEENE, N.H. – Before some fans might have had a chance to settle in at Keene Ice on Saturday, where the crowd also featured some players from the Keene Park and Rec kindergarten through first grade basketball league that the Keene State College men's ice hockey team volunteered with earlier in the morning, the University of Massachusetts-Boston scored three lightning-fast goals to build a 3-0 lead and went on to post a 4-1 Little East Conference victory over the Owls, handing KSC their fourth consecutive loss.
Highlights
Postgame Interview (Coach Rodrigue)
Postgame Interview (Ethan Swanson)
Keene State (5-8-0, 1-6-0) took a penalty 38 seconds into the game and the puck was in the back of their net only 11 seconds into the Beacons' (9-4-0, 4-2-0 LEC) power play as Steven Spetz got the scoring started with a blast above the faceoff circles. Jake Lindstrom added an even strength goal just 2:06 in – 77 seconds after the visitors' first goal – and Zander Lizotte's power play goal at the 5:16 mark had the Beacons up three goals rapidly on a night where the Owls were hoping to wash away the taste of a 6-3 home loss to the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth in which they allowed three goals in the final five minutes. Instead, they were playing catchup immediately. They never did.
They weren't without chances, however. When it was 2-0, Jacob Roberson was whistled for holding and Dylan Robbins for unsportsmanlike conduct to give KSC a full two minute 5-on-3 opportunity. They piled up a whopping 14 shot attempts in that time frame and had the puck in the offensive zone nearly the entire time, but Beacons goalkeeper Connor McDonough racked up eight saves to keep his team up two, which expanded to three just 59 seconds after UMB killed off the 5-on-3, a big momentum swing in the game.
With the score still 3-0, another major chance came a little under nine minutes into the third when Robbins was called for a five-minute major charging penalty.
Sean Gray's net-front tip of a
Marcus Chrisafideis shot about halfway through the power play opportunity broke the shutout with 8:37 to go and gave the Owls a chance to make it a one-goal game in the second half of the major, but McDonough stopped Chouinard on the only other shot on goal they were credited with before the penalty expired. KSC's offensive chances mostly dissolved from there, and Jazz Krivtsov whacked home a rebound of a Jack Mortson shot with 2:31 left to restore a three-goal UMass-Boston lead (4-1) and remove any doubt in the outcome and helping the Beacons salt away their sixth consecutive win. KSC had just one credited shot attempt (which was blocked) after the major expired and just two shot attempts over the final 8:04.
Ethan Swanson made 30 stops for the Owls in the final 54:44 and shut out the Beacons for over 50 minutes after their early flurry. Skelton made one stop in the opening 5:16 when UMB had two power play goals sandwiching KSC's major chance on the two-man advantage.
McDonough had 27 saves in the opening two periods and 34 overall in the winning effort as the Beacons went 2-0 on the weekend after a 4-0 win over Western Connecticut State University Friday night.
It was a week to open 2026 that KSC would probably like to forget, as they dropped all four games and were outscored 21-9. The Owls carried a lead into the third period at Fitchburg State University on Monday and last night against UMass-Dartmouth, but allowed five goals combined in the third period of those games without scoring any.
The Owls will be back in action for a Vermont weekend in six days, starting with a trip to Norwich University (8-4-1, 5-2-0 LEC) on Friday, January 16 at 7:00 p.m. KSC then visits Vermont State University Castleton Saturday afternoon as they play their next four games on the road.
