Boxscore

SPRINGFIELD, Mass.--Nick Diorio broke a 1-1 deadlock in the third period with his first goal of the season, and senior Chris Connors added a goal and an assist, to help the Western New England men's hockey team to an important 3-1 victory over visiting Suffolk in an Eastern College Athletic Conference Northeast game on Monday at Smead Rink at Blunt Park.

The Golden Bears snapped a season-long six-game losing streak to improve to 10-12 and vault into a tie with Curry for the sixth and final spot in the conference tournament at 4-7 and eight points apiece, with three games left. The Rams fall to 7-14-1 overall and 4-7-1 in the conference.

Diorio, a junior, followed up on a rebound shot by sophomore Chris Lembo to give the Golden Bears a 2-1 advantage with 11 minutes and 3 seconds left in the contest. Connors added an insurance tally 3:33 later as seniors Alan Martin and Eric Gethers were credited with assists after each getting a shot off. The WNE offense was buzzing creating numerous chances in the final period, outshooting Suffolk 18 to 4 over the final 20 minutes and 41-23 on the afternoon.

Senior Dan Monahan almost gave WNE a 1-0 lead 5 minutes after the opening face-off, but his low shot rang off the left post. But with 22 seconds remaining in the first period, Monahan got another opportunity and buried his fourth of the season past goalie Brandon Smolarek. Connors and classmate Cam Napolitan earned assists on the play.

Western New England had a chance to go up 2-0 in the second period when the Golden Bears had a brief 5-on-3 power play for 4 seconds. In the Rams' zone, Martin won the draw to junior assistant captain Brandon Stroud who was playing the point with the man-advantage. Stroud got off a clean shot that was saved by Smolarek into his chest.

Suffolk knotted the score at 1-all on the power play when Dan Mazzei notched his seventh tally on assists from Carmen Mastrangelo and Tim Sprague with 35 seconds remaining in the second period. Mazzei blasted a slap shot from the point that got through several players in front of the net and beat WNE junior goalie Tim Carr stickside to his left.

Smolarek ended up with 38 saves to help keep Suffolk close while Carr won his fourth game in six decisions after stopping 22 shots.

Western New England finishes the regular season with three road dates against ECAC Northeast competition: Wednesday at Salve Regina, Saturday at Nichols and next Tuesday at Becker.