Nov. 24, 2007

Courtesy of Jeff Weld -

Box Score

Rutland, VT-The Neumann College men's ice hockey team breezed to a 6-3 win over Tufts University in the opening game of the First Annual Rutland Herald Invitational hosted by Castleton State College.

Tufts broke out to a 1-0 lead just 3:19 into the first period when Doug Wilson converted a Doug Antonelli assist into his first goal of the season.

Neumann would score three unanswered goals over the next 20 minutes and never look back, improving to 5-4 on the season. Tyler Rivers and Sean Cryer each tallied their first goal of the season as the Knights ended the first half leading 2-1. Rivers' goal came at 14:25 assisted by Mark Van Vliet and Kaleigh Shrock, while Cryer's was scored with 33 seconds remaining in the period, assisted by Van Vliet and Ryan Heickert.

The Knights would open the second set with an unassisted goal by Dayne Bihn just 2:48 into the period, but the Jumbos would claw back to within one on a power-play goal by Joe Milo assisted by Kurt Hertzog and Antonelli.

In the final period Neumann's Kyle Casey scored what would prove to be the game-winner 6:20 in, assisted by Stewart Sjoberg and Heickert. Tufts would once again convert a power-play goal to cut the lead as Andy Davis picked up his first goal of the season, assisted by Joe Cappellano and Hertzog. Casey would strike for his sixth goal of the year to stretch the lead to two, while Neil Trimm would tack on the final tally, his sixth of the season as well.

Mike Collichio stopped 20 shots in the win for the Knights. Tufts falls to 1-2 on the season as Issa Azat took the loss, stopping 25 shots on net. Neumann will face the winner of Castleton vs. Morrisville State at 4:00 pm Sunday. Tufts will take on the loser of that game at 12:00 noon.