CASTLETON, Vt. (November 25, 2022) -- Making its second appearance in as many years in the Terry Moran Invitational, the Franklin Pierce University men's ice hockey team is headed for the consolation contest this time around. A three-goal second period provided the bulk of the damage on Friday night at Spartan Arena, as host Castleton dealt the Ravens a 5-1 defeat. Senior Conor Foley (Nahant, Mass.) continued his hot start with the lone goal for Franklin Pierce, while sophomore Andrew Stefura went for 2-1-3 in the victory for Castleton.

With the loss, Franklin Pierce falls to 6-4-0, while Castleton improves to 3-5-0. Franklin Pierce will meet Buffalo State in Saturday's consolation game, at 1 p.m., while Castleton will meet Saint Anselm for the tournament title at 4 p.m. Saint Anselm surrendered the first two goals, but stormed back with five unanswered to tally a 5-2 win over Buffalo State in Friday's first game.

In the nightcap, Castleton had the first period's only goal, at the 14:37 mark. Sophomore Bryce Irwin left the puck behind the net after a rush into the zone on the left wing. Freshman Dylan Roebuck picked it up there and fed it to fellow freshman Zack Whittaker in the right circle, for the latter's first collegiate goal.

The Spartans scored three times -- including twice on the power play -- in a span of just 3:19 early in the second period to build out a 4-0 lead. The first came on the power play at 4:33, as Irwin collected a rebound at the right post and slipped it into the slot for Stefura, who hammered his team-leading fourth of the season into a yawning net. Another on the man-advantage came at 7:25, as sophomore Zach Papapetros put a shot through traffic from the middle of the blue line for his second of the campaign. On the next shift, at 7:52, sophomore Jackson Kobelka did the heavy lifting, with a spin-o-rama move reminiscent of NHL 96 in the right circle, before dishing into the slot for junior Stone Stelzl's first of the year.

Franklin Pierce got one back, with a power-play goal of its own, at 9:31. Graduate student Chris Stevenson (Arvada, Colo.) started the play at the top of the left circle, and sent the puck down low for junior Cody Rumsey (York, Pa.). Rumsey worked it out front, where Foley provided the finish from the top of the crease on his team-leading 10^th of the season. Foley is on a seven-game point-scoring streak (7-7-14), and has tallied 10-7-17 through 10 games to open the year. He is already a considerable amount of the way towards the program-record scoring line of 18-22-40, set by Alex Lester '20 in 2019-20.

The remainder of the second period went without further scoring, and Castleton would net the third-period's only goal to create the 5-1 final. Stefura banged home a rebound in a 4-on-4 situation at 3:18, to complete his multiple-goal outing.

Graduate student Kyle Martin (Westford, Mass.) made 18 saves against 21 shots over 27:25 and suffered the loss (5-4-0) in the Franklin Pierce crease. He was relieved after the third Castleton goal by freshman Jeremy Connor (Hazlet, N.J.), who stopped 17 of 19 shots the rest of the way while making his collegiate debut. Sophomore Dominic Rodrigue (1-5-1) made 23 saves against 24 shots for Castleton in the victory.