WATERVILLE, Maine – The Connecticut College men's ice hockey team closed out 2024 in style, defeating host Colby College 6-3 on Saturday afternoon from Jack Kelley Rink. With the win, Conn improves to 5-3-1 and 4-2-0 in conference play, while Colby falls to 6-2-1 overall and 3-2 in conference action.
Colby opened the afternoon on the front foot, recording the first five shots of the contest inside the opening eight minutes, but Will McEvoy (Ottawa, Ontario) was sharp. Conn answered with the next four shots, including two in quick succession from Andrew Eberling (Mount Laurel, N.J.) but they were stopped. Neither side found the first goal over the remainder of the period as the game was scoreless after one.
The teams traded chances through the opening five minutes of the middle frame, before Conn was awarded a five minute power play. Two and a half minutes into the man advantage the Camels opened the scoring. Jack Luca (Milton, Mass.) fed a pass to Steven Ardagna (Roswell, Ga.) at the point, who laid it off to Will Lawrence at the top of the right circle, Lawrence fired high over the glove of Adam Costley to make it 1-0 at 8:37.
Just under three minutes later, Conn doubled the lead. Lawrence dropped a pass to Shane Zarcone (Huntington, N.Y.) who had his initial shot stopped, but Devan Newhook (St. John's, Newfoundland) followed up and poked the rebound home at 11:14. The goals continued to come in rapid succession, as John Russo (South Windsor, Conn.) won a face-off right to Quinn Kennedy (Silver Spring, Md.) who fired over the blocker of Costley to push the lead to 3-0 at 13:20. The Mules answered just over a minute later, as Reese Farrell converted on a power play to make it 3-1, heading to the third.
The Camels pushed the lead back to three at the 7:41 mark as Conrad Moline (Stoughton, Wis.) tallied his first career goal off assists from Will Winship (Andover, Mass.) and Logan Cleary (Mentor, Ohio). Exactly three minutes later, the Mules cut it back to a two goal deficit on a goal from Bobby Landry.
Colby kept up the pressure, and made it a one goal game at 15:24 on another marker from Landry. Just 16 seconds later, Conn took advantage of a mistake from Colby. After the Mules won an offensive zone face-off the puck ended up heading back towards their own net, getting past Costley to make it 5-3, with Reid Shafer (Coppell, Texas) getting credit for the goal. The Camels closed out the game with a Cleary empty net goal off an assist from Will Winship with 12 seconds left to come away with the 6-3.
Colby outshot Conn 32-31, while winning 33 of 59 draws.
McEvoy picked up the win in goal, finishing with 29 saves. Three Camels tallied two points, with both Cleary and Lawrence recording a goal and an assist, while Winship added two helpers. Kennedy, Moline, Newhook, and Shafer all picked up one goal, while Ardagna, Luca, Russo, and Zarcone all tallied one assist. Russo led the way in the face-off circle winning 10 draws, while Conn finished the contest 1-3 on the power play and 1-3 on the penalty kill.
Costley got the start in net, finishing with 20 saves. Landry paced Colby with two goals, while seven other Mules added one point. Colby finished 2-3 on the penalty kill and 2-3 on the power play.
Conn returns to action in the new year, as the Camels travel to Providence, R.I. to take on Johnson and Wales at 4:00 p.m. on Saturday, January 4th.
