No. 7 Men’s Ice Hockey Comes Back to Tie Skidmore, 3-3

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y.—Senior James Perullo (Revere, Mass.) tallied a goal and an assist, including a third-period short-handed goal that tied the game, as No. 7 Babson College rallied from a 3-0 deficit to pull out a 3-3 draw against Skidmore College Friday evening in New England Hockey Conference (NEHC) men’s ice hockey action inside the Saratoga City Rink.

With the outcome, the Beavers are unbeaten in their last four (3-0-1) and improve to 4-1-1 overall and 3-1-1 in the NEHC while Skidmore moves to 5-2-1 overall and 1-1-1 in league play.

Junior Colby Bailey (Southborough, Mass.) and first-year Ian Driscoll (Middleton, Mass.) scored power play goals for the Beavers, as all three scores for the Green and White came on special teams. Junior Thomas Kramer (Bridgewater, Mass.) collected a pair of assists and first-year Ryan Murphy (Grosse Point Farms, Mich.) and senior Andrew Holland (Winchester, Mass.) added one assist each. Senior Nolan Hildebrand (Penticton, British Columbia) made a career-high 42 saves in the deadlock.

Sophomore Kaeden Patrick (Vancouver, B.C.) notched two goals for the Thoroughbreds and first-year Ryan Waltman (South Bend, Ind.) scored once. Junior Everett Wardle (Hewlett, N.Y.) produced two assists and junior Jacob Franczak (Edmonton, Alb.), sophomores Danny Magnuson (Sunfish Lake, Minn.) and Zach Lindewirth (Gillette, N.J.) and first-year Connor Wood (St. Albans, Vt.) tallied one assist each. Junior goalie Tate Brandon (Irvington, N.Y.) made 38 saves in goal for the hosts.

Skidmore showed they came to play early on, putting two goals on the scoreboard in the first two minutes of the game and all three goals in the first period. Patrick got the first one, tipping in a shot in front from Wardle along the left boards at 1:24. The second goal came just 33 seconds later after Lindewirth stole a Babson clear at the blue line and fed Franczak for a shot from the right circle, which was saved by Hildebrand, but Waltman fired in the rebound for a 2-0 lead less than two minutes in.

Patrick made it 3-0 at 14:57 with his second of the game, receiving a pass from Wardle after getting free in the left circle, and skating in and around Hildebrand before sliding a backhander into the back of the net from the right side. Skidmore had an 18-8 advantage in shots in the first period along with the three-goal lead and successfully killed off a pair of Babson power plays.

Babson turned the tables in the second period, outshooting the hosts…