HENNIKER, NH -The New England College men's ice hockey team opens up 2020, as they defeated Plymouth State University 7-4 in non-conference action Tuesday evening.

The Pilgrims improve to 9-4-1 overall, while the Panthers move to 5-7-1.

SCORING
1^st 05:31 | NEC Connor Inger (Trevor Momot)
1^st 07:41 | NEC Hunter Hall (Jhuwon Davis and Nicholas Rein)
1^st 10:56 | PSU Leo Stolpe (Unassisted)
2^nd 07:18 | PSU Mike McPherson(Victor Bergstrom and Myles Abbate)
2^nd 08:16 | PSU Leo Stolpe (Jacob Laurin and Simon Besner)
2^nd 09:09 | NEC Trevor Momot(Connor Inger and Patrick DeBlois)
2^nd 15:16 | NEC Jhuwon Davis(Patrick DeBlois)
3^rd 00:20 | NEC Nikita Pintusov(Carlos Fornaris and CJ Valerian)
3^rd 07:48 | NEC Nikita Pintusov(Carlos Fornaris)
3^rd 14:31 | NEC Daniel Bergqvist(Carlos Fornaris)
3^rd 19:39 | PSU Simon Besner(Jake Gerbner)

HOW IT HAPPENED
The Pilgrims started things out early as they were able to find the back of the net just over five minutes into the game. Connor Inger scored the goal and Trevor Momot picked up an assist. Just about two minutes later Hunter Hall put one past the goalie for an early 2-0 lead. Jhuwon Davis and Nicholas Rein earned assists on the goal. The Panthers were able to respond a few minutes later as they snuck one in to bring things to 2-1. After that spurt, there were no more goals scored in the period and New England College took a 2-1 lead to close out the first.

The second period had a much slower start but Plymouth State was able to score just over seven minutes in to tie things up at 2-2. Less than a minute later the Panthers picked up a power-play and were able to capitalize and take the lead at 3-2. The Pilgrims were able to respond 53 seconds later off a goal by Trevor Momot to tie things up at three. Connor Inger and Patrick DeBlois picked up assists on the goal. Jhuwon Davis was able to regain the lead for NEC as he scored a beautiful goal off the pipe assisted by DeBlois. The score would hold for the remainder of the period as the Pilgrims took a one-goal lead into the final period of play.

Just 20 seconds into the third period Nikita Pintusov stung the top right corner off a beautiful pass from Carlos Fornaris to give New England College a 5-3 lead. CJ Valerian also picked up an assist on the goal. Pintusov scored again in very similar fashion assisted by Fornaris again to extend the lead to 6-3 almost halfway through the period. With just over five minutes remaining Fornaris got his third straight assist on a goal from Daniel Bergqvist for a 7-3 lead. Plymouth State added one more with 20 seconds remaining as the game closed with a 7-4 win for the Pilgrims.

GOALTENDERS
Anthony Pupplo turned aside 32 shots in the winning effort. Andreas Pettersson collected 29 saves for the Panthers.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS
- Carlos Fornaris led all skaters with 3 points on the night all 3 points coming from assists.
- The Pilgrims had 10 different skaters tally a point in the game.
-Head Coach Tom Carroll collected his 250^th career win, following the contest.
- With the win, the Pilgrims improve to 17-2-1 all-time against Plymouth State

WHAT'S NEXT
The Pilgrims head up to the University of Southern Maine for a New England Hockey Conference match-up against the Huskies on Friday, January 10^th at 7:00 pm.