The Saint Joseph's College Monks defeated the Thomas College Terriers this Thursday night, January 30th by a score of 5 to 4. These two teams faced off twice previously this season: Thomas won the first game and Saint Joseph's took the second one.
The Monks struck first just 26 seconds into the contest. Sophomore Mario Lemieux (Biddeford, Maine) accepted a pass from senior Mat Gordon (Auburn, Maine) broke into the zone on a breakaway and put the puck through the five hole of Terriers goaltender Tanner Brooks. The Monks struck again 5:47 into the period when freshman Jack Gordon (Hingham, Mass.) buried a rebound off a Zack Fyler (South Hiram, Maine) shot. Saint Joseph's scored for the third time at the 12:43 mark as Jack Gordon deflected a shot from senior Nick Chenette (Bedford, NH) into the back of the net. Before the period concluded, Mat Gordon slid the puck to freshman Brandon Ward (Houlton, Maine) who put the Monks fourth goal past Brooks with just 28 seconds remaining. At the end of the first, the Monks were ahead 4 to 0.
Just over a minute into the second stanza, Thomas' Michael Hersom broke the shutout putting one past the glove of Monks netminder sophomore Jimmy Riley (Dedham, Mass.) to cut the lead to three. Saint Joseph's scored their final goal of the contest 3:48 into the period when Jack Gordon notched his third goal of the night assisted by Brandon Ward. The Terriers struck again when Jason Dicey put one past Riley at the 9:43 mark. The final minutes of the period remained scoreless and, as the period came to a close, the score remained at 5 to 2.
Four minutes into the final period, Dicey notched another for Thomas when he found a rebound and touched it into the net, bringing the score to 5-3. Thomas struck for the last time about halfway through the period at 7:22. Lukas Bohman shot the puck toward the net, which was saved by Riley, but Bryce Lamantagne was there to put the rebound in to cut the Monks lead to one. The Monks held on to win 5 to 4. Saint Joseph's Riley had 36 saves in the win, while Thomas' Brooks had 23 saves.
The Monks final contest of the season is Senior Night and a "White Out" Game. It is slated to take place this Sunday, February 2nd versus Husson University. The puck drops at 3:20pm at Family Ice Arena in Falmouth, Maine.
