EVERETT, Mass. — The Roger Williams University Men's Ice Hockey team saw a two-goal first-period lead slip away Saturday night, falling 5-2 to Wentworth Institute of Technology in Conference of New England (CNE) action.

The Hawks struck first with a strong opening 20 minutes. At 4:34 of the first period, Ben Anderson (Burrillville, R.I. ) finished off a feed from Daxton St. Hilaire (Lewiston, Maine) and Aidan Radic (Castle Rock, Colo.) to give RWU a 1-0 edge. The Hawks doubled the lead at 16:53 when Daxton St. Hilaire buried a chance set up by Ashton Gallagher (Calgary, Alberta) and Radic, sending Roger Williams into the first intermission ahead 2-0.

Wentworth responded with a dominant middle frame, scoring five times in the second period. Nick Cullinan ignited the rally with a power-play goal at 3:44, finishing off assists from Hunter Wilson and Ian Worthley to cut the deficit in half. Cullinan struck again at 10:19 to even the score, then assisted on Seth Robinson's go-ahead tally at 15:05 to put the Leopards in front 3-2.

After a pair of Roger Williams penalties, Nick Bosch converted on the power play at 19:21, and just 20 seconds later Nikolas Sombrowski added another goal at 19:41 to cap the five-goal outburst and give Wentworth a 5-2 advantage heading into the third.

Wentworth finished 2-for-4 on the power play, scoring twice in the second period, while Roger Williams went 0-for-2 with the man advantage. The Hawks generated three power-play shots but were unable to capitalize.

Roger Williams was unable to respond to the Leopards in the final 20 minutes despite continued pressure, as Wentworth's Jack McGovern took the win and closed out the 5-2 victory with 18 saved. Roger Williams' Jacob Jaslow (Tomkins Cove, N.Y.) saved 44 shots in the contest.

Roger Williams ends their season going 6-18-1 and 4-15-1 in CNE play.