Men’s Ice Hockey Defeats Westfield St., 3-1

WESTFIELD, Mass. – The Rivier men's ice hockey team snapped a seven-game skid with a 3-1 road victory over Westfield St. in Thursday night Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference (MASCAC) action at Amelia Park Arena.

The Raiders improved to 6-15-1 (2-12-1 MASCAC) while the Owls fell to 11-11-0 (7-8-0 GNAC).

Graduate student Cody Rumsey broke the scoring open 9:42 into the second, putting a wrist shot in the top left corner on a cross-ice feed from classmate Cormac Hayes to put the Raiders up. Just 39 seconds later, first-year Jared Salminen scored the eventual game-winner, burying a shot into an open net as the Owls scrambled. Sophomore Jake Laville found him all alone out front on a backhanded feed into the slot to make it 2-0 with 9:39 remaining in regulation.

Westfield St. scored less than one minute into the third period on a power-play try to cut the deficit to one goal. The Owls looked to strike late after multiple successful penalty kills, but were scored on as Laville scored on a feed from classmate Damon Kiyawasew who beat out an icing call to help secure the empty-netter, making it 3-1 in favor of the guests.

Rivier outshot the hosts, 39-26, in the triumph as senior netminder LJ Newell made 25 stops in between the pipes in his sixth win of the campaign.

The Raiders will finish off their three-game road stand on Saturday, Feb. 15 in a matchup against Framingham St. at Loring Arena with puck drop scheduled for 3:10 p.m.