Box Score Boxscore

SPRINGFIELD, Mass.--Cameron Gaudet scored a hat trick and had four points to help Salve Regina upset host Western New England, 8-4, in the Eastern College Athletic Conference Northeast Quarterfinals on Saturday at Smead Rink. With the win, the fifth-seeded Seahawks (9-13-3 overall) avoided a season series sweep at the hands of the Golden Bears and advance to the tournament semifinals next Saturday. No. 4 Western New England ends its season at 11-15.

Junior Alan Martin led the Golden Bears with a pair of goals, and sophomore defenseman Michael Darrar also recorded two points on a goal and an assist.

Salve Regina took advantage of WNE penalties to score twice on the power play for a 2-1 lead at the end of the first period. Junior co-captain Brian Prost collected freshman Will Preston's from the right point and then found a wide-open sophomore Brandon Stroud in front of the net, who gave the Golden Bears a 1-0 lead on the power play just 1 minutes and 26 seconds after the opening faceoff. But that was short-lived as David Watkins tied it at the 7:11 mark and Gaudet netted his first of the afternoon at 15:03 with the Seahawks on a 5-on-3 man-advantage.

The teams combined for five goals in the second period when WNE outshot SRU 21 to 13. Junior Alan Martin made it 2-2 on assists by Darrar and freshman Chris Lembo at the 2:23 mark, only to have Michael Naso put the Seahawks up to stay with an unassisted goals 32 seconds later. John Scorcia gave SRU a 4-2 lead at the 5:08 mark after goalie David Chiokadze made a kick-save on Darrar and Scorcia picked up the loose puck in between the face-off circles to skate three-quarters the other way and then wristed a shot over the left-shoulder of Eric Sorenson. Later in the stanza, Darrar and Marc Biggs traded goals 21 seconds apart as SRU took a 5-3 lead.

Sorenson figured in the scoring of the first goal in the final period when he steered a shot to the corner and then Martin went end-to-end to beat Chiokadze to pull the Golden Bears within 5-4. The junior goalie joined Chiokadze in obtaining his first career assist. But just 23 seconds later, Gaudet scored an insurance tally for another two-goal advantage. Naso made it 7-4 at 12:52 and Gaudet iced the win with an empty-net goal with 56 seconds remaining.

Both teams had 39 shots on goal.

During the regular season, Western New England won 2-1 at home on Nov. 17 and stormed back from a 4-1 deficit to clip the Seahawks' wings, 6-4, in Newport, R.I., on Feb. 10.

Despite the loss, Western New England can turn the page for next season when they expect to lose the lone senior of 2013 in goaltender T.J. Fatse (Hampden, Mass./Springfield Pics, EJHL), who posted career bests of a 2.25 goals-against average and .926 save percentage in 133:34 of action.