BIDDEFORD, Maine – Junior Ryan Bloom (Northville, Mich.) recorded a hat trick to help pace the University of New England ice hockey team to a 5-1 win over Wentworth Institute of Technology in a first round game of the 2019 Commonwealth Coast Conference Ice Hockey Tournament.
With the win the third-seeded Nor'Easters improve to 18-6-2 and will travel to second-seeded Curry for a semifinal game Saturday night while the sixth-seeded Leopards see their season come to an end with an 8-14-4 record.
UNE, which put early pressure on Wentworth, nearly took a 1-0 lead when senior Tucker Ross (Ashburn, Va.) put a shot off the near post. The Nor'Easters broke the stalemate at the 7:07 mark when Bloom connected on the power play when he beat freshman Thomas Draper (Binghamton, N.Y.) inside the right post. Junior Dimitrius Jones (Seattle, Wash.) and sophomore Tyler Seltenreich (Littleton, Colo.) picked up assists on the goal. At 14:47, Bloom struck again, this time off a pass in front from senior Brady Fleurent (Biddeford, Maine) and also assisted by Seltenreich. With just over a minute left, Draper stopped freshman Aaron Aragon's (Whittier, Calif.) bid on an odd-man rush. UNE had a 17-3 shot advantage through the first period and won 19 of 26 face-offs.
The hosts took a 3-0 lead at the 3:32 mark of the second period when sophomore Brendan Donohue (New Hope, Ga.) scored off a deflection, assisted by Dimitrius Jones and freshman Liam Darcy (Alfred, Maine). Bloom completed the hat trick at 5:30 when he tallied a shorthanded marker on a 2-on-1 from Fleurent. At 10:34 of the period, UNE went ahead 5-0 on a power-play goal from Ross, assisted by sophomore Chris Jones (Seattle, Wash.) and Darcy. UNE had an 11-5 shot advantage in the period.
Wentworth ended the shutout bid at the 9:44 mark of the third period to make it 5-1 as junior Nate Chase (Plainfield, Ill.) scored from classmates Drew DiGeronimo (Fitchburg, Mass.) and Adam Tracey (Sleepy Hollow, N.Y.). Wentworth had an impressive 16-2 shot advantage in the final stanza.
Sophomore Ben Churchfield (Newcastle, England) made 23 saves while Draper made 25 saves, with 15 of those coming in the first period. UNE had a 30-24 shot advantage.
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