Men’s Ice Hockey Downs Franklin Pierce, 4-2

GARDNER, Mass. – The Rivier men's ice hockey team won its third-straight game, taking a 4-2 road victory over Franklin Pierce on Tuesday night at the Gardner Veteran's Ice Arena.

Four different goal scorers contributed to help bump the Raiders above .500 as the team now holds an overall record of 5-4-1 on the season. The Ravens fell to 5-5-0 with the setback.

Alfred Rotiroti opened the scoring for Rivier as he walked in and fired a wrister in the top right corner giving the visitors a 1-0 advantage just 5:30 into the contest.

Franklin Pierce's Matt Horan would tie the score on a rush, as his shot snuck past Will Augustine in net to make it 1-1 with 5:01 left in the second period. Just 2:11 later, Damon Kiyawasew dropped a pass off for Tyler Sitnikov who snapped a shot past Jeremy Connor to regain a Rivier lead.

Up by one in the early stages of the third, Liam Hennessy collected a loose puck off a rebound and smacked it past Connor for his third goal in two games, putting Rivier up by a pair.

Just as a Rivier penalty expired, Payton Jones buried a feed from Declan House for his first goal to cut the Ravens' deficit to one goal with 8:43 to play.

In the third, Rivier would block six shots while Augustine stood tall for eight saves before Carter Poulin would fire one into an empty net from 150 feet away with under a minute to play to clinch the victory for the Raiders.

Franklin Pierce outshot Rivier, 38-26, with Augustine making 36 saves in his second triumph of the campaign. The Raiders shut the Ravens powerplay down, killing all five penalties throughout the contest.

Rivier will return to play on Tuesday, Dec. 5 with a home matchup against Western New England, with a puck drop from Conway Arena set for 7:10 p.m.