FALL RIVER, Mass. – The Roger Williams University Men's Ice Hockey team took the ice Friday night for their first-ever Conference of New England matchup, skating stride-for-stride early before Suffolk leveraged special teams to pull away, as the Hawks fell 4-1 in Fall River.  

The opening 20 minutes featured high tempo and back-and-forth pace, with both teams trading offensive looks and transition rushes. Suffolk opened the scoring on the power play at 6:57, but RWU immediately responded with one of their strongest pushes of the game — winning races, attacking off retrievals, and forcing extended possession below the dots. That pressure led to JJ Alger (Brewster, Mass.) burying the equalizer at 11:24 off a feed from PJ Sweeney (Chamonix, France) and Colin Kwak (Alpharetta, Ga.) to make it 1-1. Suffolk regained the lead late in the first after a lengthy shift in the defensive end for RWU.

In the second period, RWU leaned heavily on structured defending and their penalty kill group. The Hawks blocked shooting lanes, pressured pucks high, and survived multiple short-handed situations — holding Suffolk off the board the entire frame. Despite being outshot, the Hawks kept the margin within a single goal entering the third and stayed within striking distance for the first half of the period.

Suffolk, however, found a third tally at 10:32 of the final frame to extend its lead, then capitalized on another power play opportunity late to close out the scoring. Roger Williams continued to push in transition and off clean defensive exits, but the Rams' zone time and shot volume late made the comeback difficult to climb back from.

Jacob Jaslow (Tomkins Cove, N.Y.) posted 31 saves on the night. RWU blocked 16 shots as a unit and continued to demonstrate growing structure just two games into NCAA play.

Roger Williams (1-1-0, 0-1-0 CNE) continues conference action on Saturday, heading to Burrillville, R.I. to face Nichols at 5:40 p.m.