WINCHENDON, Mass. – Coming down the stretch of their final extended road trip of the regular season, Post University Men's Ice Hockey headed north to begin their final road weekend series against in-conference opponent Franklin Pierce University on Friday night. After both sides exchanged a goal in the second period, three unanswered goals by the Ravens between the second and third periods would propel them past the Eagles who dropped to 0-13-1 on the road this season with a 5-2 loss.

THE BASICS

Post University 2, Franklin Pierce University 5

Post University (3-21-1, 2-14-1 NE10)

Franklin Pierce University (10-13-0, 8-9-0 NE10) 

HOW IT HAPPENED
The opening 20 minutes would come and go without either team getting on the scoreboard as junior goalie Zach Richards and freshman goalie Maxymilian Banoun were perfect between the pipes. Richards would make 15 saves for the Eagles, 10 of which came in the final 10 minutes of the period while Banoun made 10 saves with eight of those coming in the first 10 minutes of the game. A total of 18 penalty minutes were issued between both teams with Post being awarded 14 of those minutes, including a 10-minute unsportsmanlike conduct infraction.
 
Senior forward Cody Rumsey got the Ravens on the board in the second period as two initial shots by senior forward Trevor Lawler and freshman forward Cooper Anderson were knocked down by Richards but not corralled. The loose puck found the stick of Rumsey to the right of Richards and he squeezed it inside the post to give Franklin Pierce the lead, 1-0. After snapping a streak of 17 power-plays without a goal in their last game, the Eagles tied things back up on the man-up later on in the same frame with junior defenseman Wyatt De Lise in the box for interference.
 
Scoring his team-leading eighth goal of the season and fifth on the power-play, junior forward Patrick Murphy scored on Banoun after freshman defenseman Cameron Craig's shot was blocked down and was lost in a sea of players. Murphy was able to eventually locate the puck on the right of Banoun while the freshman was on the left side still searching for it and tucked it in for the game-tying goal with 7:32 left.
 
However, the tie game would be short-lived as Franklin Pierce capitalized on a power-play goal of their own following sophomore forward Nathan McDevitt being sent to the box for slashing only 32 seconds later. A slow developing play between sophomore forwards Devin Rohrich and Tyson Springer lulled the Eagle defense in front of Richards leaving streaking sophomore Austin Pick unmarked near the goal mouth for the one-timer that he would connect on.
 
The Ravens would head into the third with a two-goal lead after a wild bounce allowed Rohrich to score with under two minutes to go in the middle frame. After sophomore defenseman Douglas McGuire connected with Anderson, he would spin around and throw the puck towards Rohrich's stick. The puck deflected off Rohrich's stick and took a wild bounce over the head of Richards, who was late to react to the sudden change in direction of the puck, and past him to make it 3-1 Ravens.
 
Graduate forward Jack Engdahl would record his fifth goal of the season, catapulting him past Murphy to lead the team in points with 13 in 25 games, but he would do so around goals from freshman forwards John Sterling and Nick Fish as the Eagles would drop their fifth consecutive game in a row and move to 0-4-0 on the five-game road trip with a 5-2 loss at the hands of Franklin Pierce.

BY THE NUMBERS   

• Patrick Murphy now has a team-leading eight goals to go along with his five assists on the season
• After breaking the record for most career games played, Jack Engdahl continues to put distance between himself and Niko Grollman (2018-23) in that category as he appeared in his 106^th career game on Friday night
• The Post University penalty kill has now allowed a goal in 20 of their 25 games this season
• With their power-play goal in the second period, Post University has now scored on the power-play in back-to-back games for the third time this season – The Eagles did this against Saint Anselm and Assumption back in November and then against Southern New Hampshire and Assumption in January
• Post University remains winless on the road this season as they fall to 0-13-1 away from the Sports Center of Connecticut – Their last road win came on January 27^th, 2023 in a 4-2 victory over Saint Anselm College

 
WHO'S NEXT 
Post University will close out their regular season head-to-head against Franklin Pierce University tomorrow afternoon with puck drop scheduled for 5:30 PM up in Winchendon, Massachusetts.