Men’s Ice Hockey Falls to Salem St., 6-2

NASHUA, N.H. – The Rivier men's ice hockey team fell to Salem St., 6-2 in its home and Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference (MASCAC) opener Saturday evening at Conway Arena.

With the result, the Raiders inherited their first loss of the season and now hold a 2-1-0 (0-1-0 MASCAC), while the Vikings improved to 2-3-0 (2-1-0 MASCAC).

Salem St. came out firing in the opening frame. The Vikings had two different goal scorers find twine over a span of a minute and thirty seconds and headed into the first intermission with a 3-0 lead.

Salem St. kept on applying the pressure, adding their fourth goal from their third unique goal scorer at the 12:23 mark of the second period.

The Raiders mounted a counterattack a minute and 28 seconds later thanks to a defensive zone face-off win from senior Nicolas Paolucci who played the puck behind the net to junior Ryan Cardow. Cardow played the puck up the boards to senior captain Jon Tavella who dangled through three Viking defenders to pot his second goal of the season and Rivier's first of the night.

With the score 4-1 heading in the third period, Rivier looked to build on their momentum. Just over five minutes into the third frame, senior Cormac Hayes intercepted a pass behind the Vikings net and connected with Paolucci in the slot to cut Salem St.'s lead to two.

In the final three minutes of the contest the Vikings scored two empty net goals to put the Raiders away by a score of 6-2.

Senior goalkeeper Luke Newell logged 18 saves.

The Raiders are back on the ice Thursday, Nov. 21 to take MASCAC foe, Worcester St., at the Worcester Ice Center. Puck drop is scheduled for 7:20 p.m.