SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y.—Senior James Perullo (Revere, Mass.) tallied a goal and an assist, including a third-period short-handed goal that tied the game, as No. 7 Babson College rallied from a 3-0 deficit to pull out a 3-3 draw against Skidmore College Friday evening in New England Hockey Conference (NEHC) men’s ice hockey action inside the Saratoga City Rink.
With the outcome, the Beavers are unbeaten in their last four (3-0-1) and improve to 4-1-1 overall and 3-1-1 in the NEHC while Skidmore moves to 5-2-1 overall and 1-1-1 in league play.
Junior Colby Bailey (Southborough, Mass.) and first-year Ian Driscoll (Middleton, Mass.) scored power play goals for the Beavers, as all three scores for the Green and White came on special teams. Junior Thomas Kramer (Bridgewater, Mass.) collected a pair of assists and first-year Ryan Murphy (Grosse Point Farms, Mich.) and senior Andrew Holland (Winchester, Mass.) added one assist each. Senior Nolan Hildebrand (Penticton, British Columbia) made a career-high 42 saves in the deadlock.
Sophomore Kaeden Patrick (Vancouver, B.C.) notched two goals for the Thoroughbreds and first-year Ryan Waltman (South Bend, Ind.) scored once. Junior Everett Wardle (Hewlett, N.Y.) produced two assists and junior Jacob Franczak (Edmonton, Alb.), sophomores Danny Magnuson (Sunfish Lake, Minn.) and Zach Lindewirth (Gillette, N.J.) and first-year Connor Wood (St. Albans, Vt.) tallied one assist each. Junior goalie Tate Brandon (Irvington, N.Y.) made 38 saves in goal for the hosts.
Skidmore showed they came to play early on, putting two goals on the scoreboard in the first two minutes of the game and all three goals in the first period. Patrick got the first one, tipping in a shot in front from Wardle along the left boards at 1:24. The second goal came just 33 seconds later after Lindewirth stole a Babson clear at the blue line and fed Franczak for a shot from the right circle, which was saved by Hildebrand, but Waltman fired in the rebound for a 2-0 lead less than two minutes in.
Patrick made it 3-0 at 14:57 with his second of the game, receiving a pass from Wardle after getting free in the left circle, and skating in and around Hildebrand before sliding a backhander into the back of the net from the right side. Skidmore had an 18-8 advantage in shots in the first period along with the three-goal lead and successfully killed off a pair of Babson power plays.
Babson turned the tables in the second period, outshooting the hosts 18-7, and got back in the game with a pair of power play goals as Skidmore was whistled for three penalties. Bailey tallied his first of the season at 10:34 with a shot from the right point that went through a screen and beat Brandon to the stick side inside the left post off a feed from Perullo. Driscoll and Kramer converted a 2-on-2 break for the Beavers in the final minute of the period, with Driscoll firing a shot from the right circle that got past Brandon to pull the visitors to within one heading into the third period.
While Skidmore had a 16-9 shot advantage in the third, it was Babson that scored to tie the score. The Thoroughbreds had their first of three power play opportunities four minutes in but strong forechecking by Kramer and Holland led to a turnover and a Beaver scoring opportunity, and Kramer fed Perullo in the slot and Perullo snapped a shot inside the left post to even the score.
The Thoroughbreds had two more power play opportunities later in the period and Babson had one but neither could convert. Babson outshot the hosts 6-4 in the five-minute overtime session but the game ended in a 3-3 tie.
Skidmore finished with a 45-41 advantage in shots. Babson went 2-for-6 with the man advantage and killed off all four power play attempts by the hosts.
Both teams play NEHC games again on Saturday at 4 p.m. as Babson visits Castleton and Skidmore hosts Southern Maine.
GAME NOTES
• Babson is 38-6-3 all-time against the Thoroughbreds in a series that dates back to 1999 and is unbeaten in the last 23 games (21-0-2) in the series.
• This year’s four shorthanded goals for the Beavers are more than the previous four seasons combined and Babson’s most since scoring five times on the penalty kill during the 2014-15 season.
• The Green and White are 4-0 this season when scoring at least one power play goal, as well as 4-0 when not giving up a power play goal. They are 36-6-3 when scoring a PPG since the start of the 2019-20 season and 29-7-4 when holding opponents without a PPG during that same time frame.
