HOOKSETT, N.H. (January 22, 2022) – The Franklin Pierce University men's ice hockey team had not played in more than two weeks heading into Saturday afternoon's showdown with Southern New Hampshire at the Ice Den Arena. It seems the Ravens had some pent-up offense from the time off, as they unleashed a seven-goal attack on the way to a wild, 7-5, Northeast-10 Conference road win. Junior Conor Foley (Nahant, Mass.) scored four times to lead the way, with just the second four-goal outing in program history.

With the win, Franklin Pierce improves to 5-9-0 (2-4-0 NE10), while SNHU falls to 9-4-0 (8-1-0 NE10). The two teams have split their first two games of the season, with the rubber match of the three-game season series set for Monday night at SNHU, with an 8 p.m. faceoff.

Despite the 12 goals on the board by the end of the night, the first period featured just one. With less than 20 seconds left in the period, graduate student Paul Antkowiak (Salem, N.H.) sent a long stretch pass to the far blue line for senior Dave Cambria (West Bridgewater, Mass.), who stormed into the zone and cashed in his third goal of the season at 19:48.

The second period was home to six goals combined between the two teams. SNHU started the period with a pair of powerplay goals at 2:09 and 4:51 respectfully. The first came off the stick of sophomore Matt Amante, with assists from Joseph Fiorino and Jake Cox. Amante picked up his second point of the night with an assist on the next goal, as he combined with Cole Stewart to find George Thurston.

The next three goals belonged to the Ravens, who staked out a 4-2 lead. The first came at 6:18, after junior Vito Carlo (Las Vegas, Nev.) and senior Chris Stevenson (Arvada, Colo.) broke the puck out of their own zone and got it to Foley. The Ravens' leading goal-scorer carried the puck into the offensive end and towards the right-side boards, before eventually banking it off the skate of a SNHU defender and into the net.

Foley struck again just over six minutes later, at 12:53, as the Ravens reclaimed the lead. Carlo again had a helper, as he took a shot from the point which Foley deflected home. Just 43 seconds later, sophomore Jackson Dobek (Natick, Mass.) picked the top-left corner from the top of the right circle to make it a two-goal lead.

SNHU cut the gap to one heading into the second intermission. Freshman Ethan Rodriguez threw a soft shot towards the net from the blue line, which found its way through traffic for his first collegiate goal, at 16:37.

The game turned into a full-on barnburner in the third, with another five goals between the two sides. Franklin Pierce struck just 40 seconds into the period, on a two-man advantage. Trevor Lawler (East Bridgewater, Mass.) sent a pass across the zone which was tipped by Cody Rumsey (York, Pa.) and wound up on the stick of Stevenson, who did not miss.

Foley added his third goal of the game just 66 seconds later, with the Ravens still on the power play. Rumsey won an offensive-zone faceoff to Stevenson, who provided the setup for Foley's first career hat trick.

SNHU took a late major penalty, but set off on the comeback trail anyway, as the Penmen pulled the goalie and scored a pair of shorthanded tallies with the extra attacker. Amante scored his second of the game at 17:36, and then made it a four-point night (2-2-4), as he setup Somerville at 18:35, and the Penmen cut the gap to 6-5.

Foley would short-circuit the comeback though, as he put away an empty-netter at 19:42, to cap off his four-goal night and create the 7-5 final. He became just the second Raven to score four times in a game, joining Michael Carr, who did so against Saint Michael's on Feb. 5, 2013.

Graduate student goaltender Ian Wallace (West Islip, N.Y.) made 35 saves on 40 shots in the win (2-5-0). JT Kossakowski (3-3-0) made 28 saves on 34 shots in the losing effort for SNHU.