BIDDEFORD — The last time the University of New England men’s hockey team played against Colby College, the Nor’easters season would come to an end in a 4-2 loss to the Mules in the NCAA Division III Tournament.
The No. 12 Nor’easters would get a little revenge on Tuesday night as they captured a 4-1 victory over the Mules at the Harold Alfond Forum.
“We usually try to not put a huge emphasis on those things, trying to get redemption and all of that, but obviously they ended our season last year so it definitely felt nice to repay them tonight,” said UNE head coach Kevin Swallow.
Biddeford native Brady Fleurent agreed with his coach.
“There was definitely a little extra motivation tonight to take them home. Being back on home ice, getting a little revenge felt very good tonight,” said Fleurent.
The Nor’easters would earn two goals and shut the Mules out during the first two periods.
Early in the first period, Aaron Aragon would score with help from Brendan Donohue.
During the second period, UNE was a player down but that didn’t stop Donohue from scoring off an assist from Fleurent and Dimitris Jones.
In the third period, the Mules would score their lone goal. Three minutes after the period started, J.P. Schuhlen would score to produce a 2-1 score.
The Nor’easters would quickly answer as just two minutes later, Ryan Bloom would score his first goal of the night on a powerplay assisted by Fleurent and Jones.
“I knew that it was my last time playing them so I just wanted to go out and play well and I had a couple of assists, the pucks went in,” said Fleurent.
UNE would wrap up their victory at the 8:39 mark when Bloom would score again with the help of Fleurent and Liam Darcy to create the final 4-1 score.
“It was a team effort. Our first line had a few points. Brady Fleurent had three assists, Ryan Bloom had two goals, they’re usually the guys that carry the load for us scoring wise,” said Swallow. “I thought all four of our line offensively played well. Our fourth line chipped in a goal. I thought they were very good tonight as well.”
Swallow was also impressed with the performance of UNE goalie Tate Sproxton. The junior saved 28 tough shots from going into the back of the net. The Mules had five powerplay opportunities that they didn’t capitalize on.
“I thought we had good goaltending tonight. Tate Sproxton bailed us out a few times. Our penalty kill was pretty good. Overall, I felt that Tate played really well and bailed us out when they had some chances on the power play,” said Swallow.
The Nor’easters improved to 11-4-1 on the year, while the Mules drop to 5-5-3.
UNE will travel to Becker on Friday night.
“We’re back into league play now so the rest of our games here on out are inner conference, they’re all must wins at this point. It’s playoff time for us, we really need to buckle down and make sure we’re executing,” said Swallow.
— Sports Writer Sienna Barstow can be reached at sbarstow@journaltribune.comor at 780-9018. Follow the Journal Tribune Sports Department on Twitter @JournalTsports.