Gorham, Maine - The Saint Joseph's College Monks used a late rally to defeat in-state rival the Thomas College Terriers 7-5. The Monks pulled of another victory against the in-state rivals, with the two teams meeting for the second time in 9 days.
The Terriers struck first as Jason Dicey buried an Eric Morin feed for the 1-0 lead. Senior Jason Riley (Dedham, Mass.) answered for the Monks, taking a feed from freshman Evan Loignon (Biddeford, Maine) and beating Terriers starter Mike Smalls. Alex Nadeau gave Thomas the 2-1 lead before the teams headed to the locker room.
Thomas increased the lead in the second frame, with Dean Pratt netting his first of two goals in the contest. It was once again Jason Riley answering for the Monks, blasting a shot over the shoulder of smalls from the top of the faceoff cirlce, Ryan Berard (Millville, Mass.) and Brendan Woelful (Lowell, Mass.) would pick up assists on the play. The teams headed to the final frame with the Terriers leading 3-2.
Saint Joseph's struck early and often to start the third period, Zach Graham (Marlborough, Mass.) tied the game 1:22 into the third period. Just under two minutes later, Graham took a Marshall Berninghausen (Brasher Falls, N.Y.) feed in passed the Thomas defense and beat Smalls over the glove to give the Monks a 4-3 lead. Senior Mario Lemieux (Biddeford, Maine) would later extend the lead, making a nifty move on a defender finishing off a backhand goal. Ryan Berard (Millville, Mass.) added to the scoring barrage with a goal at 7:18 of the third period. The Monks had turned the defecit into a 6-3 lead with less than half of the final frame gone. The Terriers settled down after a timeout as Eric Crowly made it a 6-4 game. Later, Pratt would pick up his second goal off a scramble in front to make it a one goal game with 5:15 remaining. Senior goaltender Jimmy Riley (Dedham, Mass.) would make some key saves down the stretch, and Dan Donovan iced things with an empty net goal as the Monks held on for the 7-5 win.
The Monks improve to 4-1 (4-1 NECHA) on the season, while the Terriers drop to 0-4 (0-2 NECHA). Jimmy Riley stopped 29 of 34 shots for the Monks, as Smalls stopped 24 of 29. Connor Blair stopped 4 of 5 shots in relief for Thomas.
