CANTON, Mass. - The Curry College men's ice hockey team dropped Nichols College 6-3 on Friday evening at its eighth annual Teddy Bear Toss game at the Canton Ice House.
With the win, Curry heads into the winter break with an overall record of 7-2-0 and improves to 6-2-0 in the Commonwealth Coast Conference.
Nichols came out the gate hot, scoring the only goal of the opening 20 minutes, and extending their lead to two on a power play goal early in the second.
Just over two minutes after Nichols stretched the lead to two, graduate defenseman Billy Roche (Braintree, Mass.) sent hundreds of teddy bears flying onto the ice with his second goal of the season. Earning assists on the play were sophomore Eelis Laaksonen (Espoo, Finland) and freshman Gage Dill (Estero, Fla.).
All the bears that hit the ice will be donated the the Salvation Army of Canton, and donations collected throughout the game will go to The Home for Little Wanderers.
Midway through the period, Curry leveled the score on the first collegiate goal from defenseman Nicolas Lariviere (Blainville, Quebec). The freshman walked down the left wing and ripped a shot into the top corner of the net on the short side for a highlight reel tally. Laaksonen and Timmy Kent (Parkland, Fla.) notched helpers on the play.
Curry took a 3-2 lead into the third thanks to a Mark Zhukov (St. Peterburg, Russia) marker with 6:23 remaining in the second, assisted by Dill and rookie Jesse Galassi (Lockport, N.Y.).
Nichols tied the score at three early in the third, but Arty Koppass (Riga, Latvia) broke the tie exactly three minutes after the equalizer off a faceoff. George Vonakis (Abingdon, Md.) and Nick Favaro (Vaughan, Ontario) added insurances makers for Curry in the final minutes of the contest to close out the 6-3 victory.
In between the pipes, graduate student Reid Cooper (Corman Park, Saskatchewan) turned aside 17 shots to earn his seventh victory of the season.
Curry will return to the ice for the Northfield Savings Bank Holiday Tournament at Norwich University on December 30. Curry will face Trinity College in a neutral site contest, with puck drop slated for 4 p.m.
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