Box Score Boxscore

SPRINGFIELD, Mass.--Fran Mackin recorded a hat trick to lead a balanced Johnson & Wales scoring attack as the visiting Wildcats doubled up Western New England, 6-3, in an Eastern College Athletic Conference Northeast men's hockey game on Senior Day Saturday at Smead Rink at Blunt Park. Johnson & Wales improves to 16-5-1 on the season (6-4-1 ECAC Northeast) while the Golden Bears drop to 9-12 (3-7 ECAC Northeast).

In a pregame ceremony, the WNE coaching staff recognized 11 student-athletes for their contributions on and off the ice as this group of Golden Bears are the winningest senior class--with 42 victories--in two decades.

Senior Alan Martin led WNE with a pair of goals and junior assistant captain Matt Dore scored another tally in the game's opening minute.

Ben Brouillard (2 assists) and Eddie Patterson (1 goal, 1 assist) joined Mackin as Wildcats with a mutli-point game among 10 JWU players who recorded at least one point.

For Western New England, senior assistant captain John Kelly set a personal record with his 15th assist on Martin's second tally in the third period that shaved the deficit to 5-3 at the time. Senior captain Brian Prost got the primary assist on the play.

Both teams had their power-play units clicking as Johnson & Wales and WNE netted three goals apiece on the man-advantage.

The Golden Bears struck first against the ECAC Northeast's top penalty-kill unit just 1 minute and 11-seconds into the first period. Junior transfer Joe Budnick drew a face-off win to Dore behind the left face-off dot, where he got a shot past freshman goalie Joey Ballmer for a 1-0 lead.

Mackin tied it 1-all 5:21 later when he wristed a shot into the upper left corner from between the face-off circles. That sparked a streak of four unanswered goals for the Wildcats, who tallied three while on the power-play in the opening frame.

Martin scored the first of his two goals with 8 seconds left in the first, potting a feed from junior assistant captain Brandon Stroud to cut the deficit to 4-2.

The teams alternated the last three goals over the final 33 minutes as Mackin and Patterson bookended goals around Martin's sixth of the season to account for the final scoring margin.

Western New England outshot J&W 47 to 39 for the game, including a wide margin of 25-14 in the third period when the Golden Bears but could muster only one goal.

Ballmer finished with 44 saves while WNE senior goalie Eric Sorenson stopped 33 shots.

Western New England hosts Suffolk in a key ECAC Northeast contest at 2:07 p.m. Monday. The Golden Bears trail the Rams by three points for fifth place and Curry by two points for the final conference playoff berth. There are four games left in the regular-season.