Box Score Boxscore

BURRILLVILLE, R.I--The Western New England University men's hockey team concluded the regular season with a 4-1 loss to host Nichols College in Eastern College Athletic Conference Northeast action at Levy Rink on Saturday. The Golden Bears fall to 11-14 on the season and 8-6 in the ECAC Northeast, while the Bison improve to 16-7-1 overall and 9-3-1 in the league.

Junior co-captain Brian Prost scored Western New England's lone goal at the 15:51 mark of the first period, tying the game at 1-all. Prost notched his eighth on the year by taking a feed from fellow junior co-captain John Kelly, his 12th assist.

Nichols took advantage of 14 WNE penalties to score three times on 11 power play opportunities. Chris Gularte gave the Bison a 1-0 lead in the first period, Tyler Beasley made it 2-1 in the second and Joe Sposit put NC up 3-1 with the team's first of two goals in the third. Sposit scored at the 6:10 mark and Mike Schwartz netted his first of the season just 1 minute and 31 seconds later.

The Bison also applied constant offensive pressure with 52 shots on the WNE goal and Eric Sorenson tried to keep the Golden Bears within striking distance by making a team-season-high 48 saves. The teams were tied 1-1 after 20 minutes thanks to Sorenson turning aside 21 of 22 shots.

Alex Larson stopped 14 of 15 shots to improve to 10-5-1.

With the win, Nichols clinches second place in the league standings and a bye in the first round of the conference tournament. The Bison will host a home game on Wednesday, Feb. 27, against an opponent to be decided during the opening round next Saturday. Western New England claims a home game in the first round and will wait until the end of Tuesday's games to learn its postseason opponent.