Hockey Falls To Nichols, 5-3

The hockey squad dropped a 5-3 decision against Nichols in an ECAC Northeast contest at the Levy Rink on Saturday evening.

Junior Jason Pietrasiak (Shrewsbury, Mass.) put JWU on the board first as he wristed a feed from senior Domenic Recchia (Sterling Heights, Mich.) with help from junior Danny Kaufmann (Scotch Plains, N.J.) at 10:52 mark of the first period. The Bison responded at 14:28 as freshman Louie Educate (Chicago, Ill.) found the back of the net with assistance from juniors Zach Kohn (Delafield, Wisc.) and Danny Greiner (Columbus, Ohio).

Wildcats junior Erick Vos (Kalamazoo, Mich.) put the team ahead once more just 4:39 into the second stanza with a point blank shot off passes from rookie Alex Porrier (Rutland, Vt.) and junior Patrick Colclough (Naples, Fla.). Senior Tony Galante (Buffalo, N.Y.) increased the Johnson & Wales advantage a minute later as he netted a rebound off a shot by senior Jeremiah Ketts (Foristell, Mo.) to make the score 3-1.. With 7:09 left in the stanza, Nichols capitalized on a JWU miscue to cut the lead to 3-2.  The Wildcats took the one goal lead heading into the third period.

Nichols knotted the game at the 8:51 mark on a shorthanded goal by senior Zach Hendrickson (Farmingdale, N.Y.) to make the score 3-3. Under two minutes later, Educate sniped the puck past the goalie after receiving the pass from junior Wil Brown (Hershey, Pa.) to make the score 4-3. The Bison then added an empty net goal late to take the 5-3 victory..

Junior Matt Cooper (Perrysburg, Ohio) made 46 saves in the loss for JWU while senior Jacob Rinn (Warwick, R.I.) had 26 stops for Nichols in the victory.

With the loss Johnson & Wales is now 10-5-2 for the year and 4-1-1 in the ECAC Northeast while Nichols improves to 5-11-1 on the year, 3-3-0 in league play.  The Wildcats will return to action on Wednesday, January 25th when they travel to Suffolk for an ECAC Northeast contest at 7:35 p.m.