FRESH LEGS: Strong third period rallies Endicott by Curry in battle of nationally ranked clubs

Dec. 5—BEVERLY — Handing any college hockey team its first loss of the season is no easy task. Doing so when the calendar has already turned to December and its been less than 24 hours after a narrow loss in their barn might be even tougher.

The Endicott College men's hockey team climbed that mountain on Saturday afternoon, snapping Curry's nine game unbeaten streak with a 5-2 victory at Bourque Arena.

The Gulls, ranked 8th in the country in Division 3, used a fairly dominant third period to knock No. 13 Curry from the unbeaten ranks. Though the visitors tied it up, 2-2, just 3:26 into the final frame, Endicott (7-2-1) scored three times in the final ten minutes to win going away in front of a decent (and excitable) crowd of students, fans and alumni.

"They made it 2-2 and were kind of all over us but we did an awesome job of grabbing that momentum back," said senior goalie Conor O'Brien, the team's captain who made 30 stops to earn his 40th career victory.

The pivotal moment of the third came after Endicott was whistled for a questionable goalie interference penalty. On the kill, 6-foot-5 Belarussian winger Svet Kuchynski took the puck in and went hard to the net. Curry goalie Roland Polasek wasn't able to cover it up and Mitch Shaheen poked it home for the shorthanded, game winning goal.

"We beared down and we finished those chances around the net," said Shaheen, a North Andover native who starred at St. John's Prep. "Svet's been a beast ... I can't say enough good things about the way he's been playing."

Endicott widened the gap when Andrew Kurapov scored his second of the night from the side of the cage only 81 seconds later. Shaheen added an empty netter, also on the penalty kill, to become the first player in Endicott history to score two shorty's in the same game.

"The guys played hard," head coach R.J. Tolan said. "It's a very mature group. They listen, they do what you ask them do to. They're great to coach."

Trailing 1-0 after 20 minutes, Endicott did a much better job getting to the net in the middle period. Kurapov tied it up only 10 seconds in, assisted by Kuchynski, and the Gulls took the lead on a goalmouth scramble batted in by Derek Contessa midway through.

"Coach was hyping on going to the net a lot more and it definitely paid off," said Shaheen, who had three points on the night and leads the team with eight in 10 games.

O'Brien was tested in the third but did a great job with rebound control and showed off a quick glove, though Curry's Timmy Kent did knot things up (after having his skates sharpened between periods, no less). Like any great goalie, O'Brien shook off the score and shut the door the rest of the way; his 30 saves were the second most of the season for the team captain from Florida.

"A lot of it is timing: When you save the puck as opposed to how many saves," said O'Brien. "I try to string together 20-25 minutes without allowing a goal to give us time to get going and get that momentum."

Kuchynski had two assists for Endicott and Matt Giroux, Cam Speck and Ryan Gaulin had other helpers. The Gulls were definitely the fresher of the teams in the final period of the back-to-back series and were intent on evening the weekend after Curry won, 2-1, at its place on Friday night.

"We needed this win," said O'Brien, noting that the Gulls are now 2-1-1 against ranked opponents early in the season. "It's a pretty good start, especially when you consider we have probably 15 guys most nights that haven't played much because of the COVID year."

There are a lot of new faces in the lineup for a Gulls team that was 22-5 and had national championship aspirations when the 2020 NCAA tournament was cancelled. Endicott was limited to three games in the 20-21 season (all wins) and feels like its finally back in a rhythm about a third of the way through this 21-22 campaign.

"After having almost a whole year off, it took some getting used to but everyone's locked in on all cylinders now," said Shaheen. "I think it's coming with maturity. We're realizing we have to at least split these weekend series. This was a big one and I can't say enough good stuff about our entire team."

"You only have 25 games in college hockey so every game is that much more important," O'Brien added. "These back-to-backs are awesome because every team wants to win every single game. It's great hockey."