DANBURY, Conn. – Thor Hansen netted his first career hat trick, all in the third period, to help lead the Keene State College men's ice hockey team take their first lead and the Owls went on to polish off a skid-snapping victory, posting a 4-2 road win over Western Connecticut State University in Little East Conference action Saturday afternoon at the Danbury Ice Arena.

The win snaps an 11-game slide for KSC (6-15-0, 2-12-0 LEC), who won for the first time since December 5 and swept the Wolves (2-19-0, 1-13-0 LEC) in the season series.  WestConn had picked up their first league victory last Saturday, beating New England College 3-2.

It took the Owls some time to get going, as they found themselves down 1-0 thanks to Luca Maiuri's power play goal just 1:17 into the second period, but Mike Collett answered at the 12:01 mark with a power play tally of his own off a feed from Marcus Chrisafideis to tie it at one.  That wound up being all the scoring in the second period despite a combined seven minor penalties in the middle 20 minutes.

KSC took over in the third, taking a 2-1 lead with just over 13 minutes to go when Hansen potted his first of the day off another feed from Chrisafideis.  The sophomore New Jersey native now has points in five of his last six games (four goals, seven assists) and has surpassed his season goal total (nine) from his freshman year with still four games to go.  Hansen added a key insurance tally off feeds from Declan House and Peter Unger – ultimately the game-winner – to make it a 3-1 game with a little over four minutes to go as the Owls moved closer to shaking off a skid that had many near misses, including three overtime losses among the six defeats by two goals or less.

WestConn made things interesting when Tyler Gobel scored their second power play goal of the day with 2:58 left to make it 3-2, and the Wolves nearly had a chance right out in front with a bouncing puck soon thereafter, but KSC controlled the final minute and Hansen iced it with his second of the day that made it 4-2 into an empty net with 22 seconds left.

"Man did we need that," said Owls head coach Bobby Rodrigue.  "We did not play a very good first period but after that, the boys took control of the game the way we expected them to.  The playing conditions were less than ideal, but the boys did a decent job playing through the adversity."


Ben Skelton got the win in the KSC net, making 33 saves including 24 over the final two periods.  Liam Lane stopped 21 in the loss for WestConn.

The Owls return to Keene Ice for their final two home games of the season next Friday (February 13) and Saturday (February 14), hosting Vermont State University Castleton and Norwich University, respectively, both at 7:30 p.m.