Box Score CollegeHockeyStats.net Official Boxscore

MILTON, Mass.--The Western New England University men's hockey team scored three times in the second period en route to a 4-0 shutout of host Curry College in an Eastern College Athletic Conference Northeast game at Max Ulin Rink on Thursday. The Golden Bears move to 3-1 on the season and 2-0 in the ECAC Northeast standings, while the Colonels fall to 1-3 overall and 0-2 in the conference.

After the teams skated to a scoreless first period, WNE used the power play to get the offense rolling in the second. Newcomer Joe Budnick scored his first goal in a Golden Bears uniform at the 7:36 mark, followed by defenseman Will Preston on another man-advantage opportunity just 46 seconds later.

That was all the offense WNE senior goaltender Eric Sorenson would need to post his fourth career shutout by stopping all 22 shots he faced. Sorenson lowered his goals-against average to a conference-second-best 1.34.

"I thought we played really solid tonight. I thought we did a great job of executing our systems and playing very methodically," Western New England coach Greg Heffernan said. "I'm proud of our guys.

"But the night is over and it's time to go to work on preparing for Suffolk on Saturday."

Sophomore Ryan Taylor scored his first career goal, unassisted, with 10 seconds remaining in the period to give WNE a commanding 3-0 lead.

Western New England's last ECAC Northeast road shutout came on Feb. 2, 2013, also against Curry, 3-0, and tonight's four-goal winning margin is the largest over a conference opponent on the road since a 5-1 triumph at Salve Regina on Feb. 9, 2011.

Freshman Josh Twietmeyer rounded out the scoring midway through the final stanza with his first career goal in his collegiate debut, with Budnick assisting on the play to earn his first multi-point game for the Golden Bears.

Michael Farino, another first-year, also assisted on Preston's goal while making his WNE debut.

Western New England shut down all four Curry power-play opportunities.

Brett Sinclair made 23 saves for the Colonels, who were led offensively by Brandon Gilmore with four shots.

The Golden Bears stay on the road in ECAC Northeast action on Saturday (2:40 p.m.) at Suffolk University at the Charlestown DCR Rink.