GORHAM, Maine - The New England College men's ice hockey team fell just short on Friday night, dropping a matchup to the Huskies of the University of Southern Maine, 4-3, as the team resumed Little East Conference (LEC) play in Gorham, Maine. 

After the Huskies took an early 1-0 lead five minutes into the game, the Pilgrims matched it two minutes later as junior Dylan Duckson (Mahtomedi, Minn.) scored his second goal of the season off the find from freshman Wyatt Gibson (Pelham, Ont.) from behind the net. Junior Jakub Rusina (Frýdek-Místek, Czech Republic) was credited with the secondary assist. 

Later in the first, with 8:21 to go, freshman Jaeseok Lee (Suwon, South Korea) put the 'Grims on top with the first goal of his career, racing in behind the goaltender on a fast-break and capitalizing on a loose puck in front of the net. Freshman Jack Ohlund (Lakeville, Minn.) stole the puck away from the hosts to jumpstart the fast-break and was given the assist. 

Southern Maine wasted no time getting going in the second period, scoring twice in the first 92 seconds as the Little East's leading scorer, Ben Aucoin, scored his 12th goal of the season while Owen Arend also got in on the action. The Huskies would score again midway through the third period to go up, 4-2. 

With 6:39 left in the game, the NEC managed to cut USM's lead in half; Sophomore Egor Osipik (Minsk, Belarus) received the puck to the left of the Huskies' net, just atop the faceoff circle in their attacking zone, and Osipik went top shelf in the right corner of the cage to pull the 'Grims within one. Junior Gunnar Sibley (Monticello, Minn.) and freshman Jack Brennan (Hingham, Mass.) were in on the assists. 

The 'Grims had one more power play chance late in the game but were unable to capitalize on the man-up opportunity. The team went empty net for the final 48 seconds of the game, producing a couple shots on net including a strike from junior Christophe Petit (Chelsea, Quebec) which hit the pipe, but fell just short in the Friday night matchup, 4-3. 

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