Dec. 7, 2007

Story Courtesy: Sarah Madrak, Neumann College Sports Information

Aston, PA.-   Three games; three hat tricks. Coupled with the impressive goaltending of Mike Collichio and coming off of being named ECAC player of the week, junior forward Mike Hedden scored three goals for the third game in a row this Friday night, leading the Neumann Knights to 6-3 victory over the Blue Devils of SUNY Fredonia.

Hedden was off to a quick start as he slipped the first goal of the night past Fredonia's goal keeper just five minutes into the game. The play was set up by assists from Kyle Casey and Neil Trimm and set the tone for the evening. After the results of Friday night's game, these three players are tied for first place in overall points in the ECAC West.  The only other goal in the first period came from Trimm putting Neumann ahead of Fredonia 2-0.

Neumann continued their scoring drive late into the second period with goals from Ryan Heickert, a back handed tip-in from Hedden and one from Kyle Casey. Casey's goal ended goalie Pat Street's night as Fredonia tried their luck with junior Pat Amborski in net. After this change, the Blue Devils were able to finally break past the stellar goal tending of Collichio with an unassisted goal from Jeff Aonso.

In the final period of play, Neumann's defensive intensity softened as Fredonia's Andrew Hess was able to blast a shot from the blue line past Collichio, putting the Blue Devils within three. Hedden quickly responded with his third goal of the night by going coast to coast after another feed from Kyle Casey.  Fredonia added a goal late in the third period resulting in the final score of Neumann 6, SUNY Fredonia 3. On the evening, Collichio skated away with the win, tallying 34 saves and improving his record to 8-4-0.

Head Coach Phil Roy said of the win, "As a unit, we played very well through their trap system and saw many players step up. We were able to come back in the zone with speed and make good offensive pursuits.  We need to tweak some areas defensively, but overall, this was a good win."

The Knights will look to record their sixth straight win and complete a weekend sweep of SUNY Fredonia at 4:00PM at the Ice Works Quad Rinks in Aston, PA.