BOX SCORE

NEW BEDFORD, MA-The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth's hockey team scored three goals in the first period and freshman forward Joe Hill (Newburyport, MA/Valley Jr. Warriors) had a natural hat trick as the Corsairs blanked visiting Southern New Hampshire, 7-0 , in an Eastern College Athletic Conference Northeast game at the Stephan Hetland Memorial Ice Arena Saturday.

Hill scored the first three goals of the third period as UMass Dartmouth broke the game open. He converted a pass from junior forward Chris Shore (West Haven, CT/Winchendon Academy) for his first goal, was assisted by sophomore forward Matt Serino (Saugus, MA/Avon Old Farms) on his second, and was aided by Serino and senior defenseman Jon Finn (Warwick, RI/Boston Harborwolves) on the third. Sophomore forward Pat Welch (Dorchester, MA/Bay State Breakers) scored the final goal of the game.

UMass Dartmouth took a 3-0 lead in the first period. Junior forward Nick Paquin (Warwick, RI/Winchendon Academy) put the Corsairs ahead, 1-0, with a power play goal at 4:32 of the first period. Shore's power play goal at 14:30 made it 2-0, and senior forward Jeff Grant made it 3-0 by scoring at 17:29 of the first period.

The Corsairs converted four of their six power play opportunities while stopping the Penmen on all three of their chances. UMass Dartmouth out shot SNHU, 42-29. Green made 29 saves for the Corsairs in earning his second shutout of the season and the eighth of his career. Matt Courchesne (Bow, NH) made 35 stops for Southern New Hampshire.

UMass Dartmouth improved to 9-6-1 and 7-1-0 in the ECAC Northeast with the victory, while the Penmen dropped to 8-7-1 and 5-5-1 with the loss. The Corsairs will return to action when they host Suffolk in an ECAC Northeast Conference game Wednesday evening, while Southern New Hampshire will visit Salve Regina February 2nd.