Men’s ice hockey advances to conference championship

The men’s ice hockey team is on its way to the Eastern College Athletic Conference Northeast championship game for the first time in program history with its 3-2 upset win over No. 2 Nichols College in the semifinals.

Nicholas took a quick 2-0 lead in the first period, outshooting the Seahawks 18-9 in the opening frame. But just as they have all season, the Seahawks fought back, and John Scorcia ’15 kicked off Salve Regina’s comeback. Zakerie Thompson ’16 took an initial shot that was blocked but ricocheted to Scorcia to send home his 11th goal of the season and cut Nichols’ lead to 2-1 9:25 into the second period.

Later in the second period, Scorcia set up Alex Barr ’14, who found an opening on the blocker side and sent the puck home from the right circle to even the score at 2-2. Salve Regina held the advantage in shots in the second frame, 13-9, and killed off Nichols’ only power play chance of the period.

Cameron Gaudet ’16 took a feed from Michael Naso ’15 and David Watkins ’14 off a rebound to send the game-winning goal home 3:26 into the third period.

As good as good as the offense was for the Seahawks, goalie David Chiokadze ’16 was crucial in the Seahawks victory, making a career-high 47 saves in the net for Salve Regina.

The last time the Seahawks made it past the quarterfinals was in 2002, and the victory was Salve Regina’s first win over Nichols since 2004. Salve Regina advances to the championship game slated for 1 p.m. Sunday, March 3 against Wenthworth Institute of Technology.