Kaufman’s Hat Trick Leads Hockey To 7-1 Win Over Southern New Hampshire

Junior Danny Kaufman (Scotch Plains, N.J.) scored a hat trick to lead the hockey team to a commanding 7-1 victory against Southern New Hampshire in a non-conference contest at The Lynch Arena/Blackstone Valley Sports Center on Wednesday evening.

Southern New Hampshire jumped on the board first when freshman TJ Bond (Nashua, N.H.) put in a goal at the 8:14 mark.  JWU responded, however as Kaufman scored off a power play when he tipped in a blasted shot from junior Trevor Jewell (Belgrade, Mont.) at the 13:13 mark.  The Wildcats again capitalized on the power play when junior Max Carter (Royal Oak, Mich.) put in a shot from the point on a pass from fellow junior Jason Pietrasiak (Shrewsbury, Mass.) at the 15:47 mark.  The Wildcats took the 2-1 lead heading into the locker room after the first period of play.

JWU struck early in the second stanza as Kaufman's second goal of the contest just :47 seconds in made the score 3-1.  Kaufman capped off his hat trick at the 17:53 mark of the second period on a power play goal with assists to senior All-American Jeremiah Ketts (Foristell, Mo.) and Pietrasiak.  The Wildcats had the 4-1 lead after two periods of action.

It was all JWU in the third as goals by freshman Jason Healy (Goshen, N.Y.), freshman Alex Porrier (Rutland, Vt.) and senior co-captain Domenic Recchia (Sterling Heights, Mich.) propelled the Wildcats to the 7-1 victory.

Junior Matt Cooper (Perrysburg, Ohio) made 23 saves in the win for JWU while sophomore Tyler Holske (Attleboro, Mass.) had 40 stops in the loss for SNHU.

With the win Johnson & Wales is now 7-3-1 for the year while Southern New Hampshire falls to 1-10-1 on the season.  The Wildcats will be off until after the new year when they travel to UMass Boston and the Codfish Bowl on January 6^th-7^th.  The Wildcats will take on Tufts on the 6^th at 1:00 p.m.