SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (February 20, 2016) - The Western New England University ice hockey team fell to visiting Becker College, 7-2, this afternoon in Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Northeast action at Smead Arena.
 
Senior goaltender Austin Keiser (Danwwody, Ga.) stopped 31 of 38 shots in a losing effort while his counterpart, junior Tyler Stepke (Mars, Pa.), made 28 saves on 30 shots. Keiser falls to 1-13-2 on the season while Stepke improves to 7-11-1.
 
The Golden Bears struck first on senior day just 5:44 into the first period, when freshman Carlos Ross (Brockport, N.Y.) received a pass in the slot from senior Chris Lembo (Southington, Conn.), made a move to his backhand and finished his shot for his second goal of the season.
 
Just over three minutes later, Becker sophomore Corey Sherman (Hilton, N.Y.) took a pass at the left faceoff dot from the center of the blue line and fired a snapshot in the top left corner of the net to beat Keiser on the power play to knot things up at 1-1.  Sherman would add two more goals, finishing with a hat trick.
 
The Hawks were not done scoring in the first, however, as they added another goal at the 12:48 mark to take a 2-1 lead. After driving down the right side of the ice, junior Gerald Owen (Chesapeake, Va.) fired a shot that was blocked by a Golden Bear defenseman. The rebound found freshman Dylan Durham (Dallas, Tex.) in the top of the slot and he fired a wrister past Keiser. The tally would mark Durham's third of the season.
 
The second period would end scoreless, although the Golden Bears had a great opportunity to tie things up early in the frame when freshman Edmund Rogers (Creve Coeur, Mo.) took a wrist shot that rang off the crossbar from the right side of the blue line.
 
The Hawks extended their lead to 3-1 just 2:28 into the final period, but the Golden Bears continued to battle back. Freshman CJ Totillo (Brooklyn, N.Y.) fired a shot on net and classmate Steve Beck (Milton, N.Y.) finished the rebound to make it 3-2 only 29 seconds later.
 
Becker extended the margin back to two (4-2) less than a minute later, however, and pulled away late, tacking on three more goals.
 
Western New England sees its 2015-16 campaign come to a close at 2-19-4, including 1-13-2 in conference play, while Becker improves to 10-14-1 (6-9-1 ECAC NE).