Box Score Box Score

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – Senior forward Christopher Rogers (Westford, MA) scored a short-handed goal with 1:55 left as the Stonehill men's hockey team rallied for a 4-3 victory over Western New England College in the season opener for both teams Tuesday evening (Nov. 3) at Smead Arena.

The Skyhawks trailed 2-0 after two periods before scoring all their goals scored in the final 16 minutes, 22 seconds to spoil the coaching debut of WNEC's Greg Heffernan.

Western New England College took a 1-0 lead on a goal by sophomore forward Rory Hansen (Noblesville, IN) at the 18:05 mark of the opening period and scored again with one second left in the middle stanza on a power play shot by junior forward Vinny Weyel (North Haven, CT) who assisted on the first score. Sophomore forward Kory Grahl (San Diego, CA) had assists on the first two goals.

That set the stage for the wild third period.

Stonehill finally broke through when freshman forward Dana Borges (Taunton, MA) hit the back of the net on a power goal just 3:38 into the period. Senior forward Zachary Cantin (Saugus, MA) had the assist.

The Golden Bears took a 3-1 advantage on a goal by freshman forward Nico Santaniello (East Longmeadow, MA) with an assist from sophomore forward Mike Kaselouskas (East Longmeadow, MA).

Cantin pulled the visitors within one scoring at 8:21 with assists from sophomore forwards Patrick Greene (Weymouth, MA) and Andrew Diozzi (Belmont, MA).

Junior forward Angelo Todesca (Westwood, MA) then tied the contest just 1:24 later with assists from junior forward Andrew Webb (Jaffrey, NH) and freshman forward George DeMello (Cotuit, MA).

Junior goalie Michael Manna (Framingham, MA) finished with 32 saves for Stonehill.

WNEC junior goalie Justin Richards (Somers, CT) stopped 44 shots in a fine performance.