Six Unanswered Goals Sends Men’s Ice Hockey Past SNHU, 6-2

NASHUA, N.H. – Behind six unanswered goals over the final 20:22 of regulation, the Rivier men's ice hockey team erased a two goal deficit to rally past Southern N.H., 6-2, on Tuesday night at Conway Arena as part of Faculty and Staff Appreciation Night. The Raiders now sit at 2-3-1 while SNHU fell to 1-3-0 on the season.

Prior to the opening faceoff, Rivier's Dean of Business and Security Studies, Amir Toosi, D.B.A, partook in a ceremonial puck drop to kick off the celebration of the University's faculty and staff.

SNHU took the lead late in the first period when Coleman Nee scored an unassisted goal with 1:02 to play.

The Penmen lead doubled 7:23 into the second period when Kurt Watson lit the lamp.

In the final 30 seconds of the frame, Rivier kept SNHU from breaking out of their defensive zone as Jack Tos picked the puck up off of an errant pass and buried a shot to cut the deficit to one at the second intermission.

The Raiders took advantage of a powerplay opportunity as Cormac Hayes fired a wrist shot from the left faceoff circle into the back of the net to tie the score at 2-2 with 14:13 to play.

In the middle of the period, Alfred Rotiroti took the puck out of a Penmen defenseman's skates and scored to give Rivier its first lead of the contest.

Just under six minutes later, Tyler Sitnikov found twine to extend Rivier's lead to two before an empty netter by Nicolas Paolucci and another strike by Rotiroti capped off the scoring efforts to give Rivier its second win of the campaign.

The Raiders outshot SNHU, 38-27, in the contest as goaltender Luke Newell made 26 stops in net for Rivier.

Rivier went 1-for-3 on the powerplay while killing all six penalties called on them.

Rivier returns to action in a road matchup at Trinity (Conn.) on Tuesday, Nov. 21 with a 7:30 p.m. puck drop scheduled at the Koeppel Community Sports Center.