Saratoga Springs, NY-The Castleton State College men's ice hockey team won its first ECAC East contest of the season, defeating Skidmore 7-5 to improve to 3-7-1 (1-3-1 ECAC East).

The Spartans jumped out to an early 3-0 lead in the first 6:29 of play, as Matt Link, Evan Romeo and Ryan Bartlett each tallied to stake Castleton to the early advantage. The first period action would remain fast and furious as Skidmore regrouped and scored a pair of unanswered goals as Matt Czerkowicz scored with a little over three minutes remaining, and Steve Keady sent home his second of the season with 2:07 left. Stuart Stefan wrapped up the first period scoring with his fourth of the year on the power-play with 18 seconds remaining.

The two teams traded second-period goals as Skidmore came out strong with a Chris Webb score five minutes in. Castleton's Steve Culbertson stole a clearing pass and scored a short-handed breakaway at 11:54 to make it 5-3. Skidmore answered again on Charlie Moroni's goal at 15:06 to make it 5-4 after two periods.

Once again both teams would alternate scoring over the final 20 minutes. Romeo scored Castleton's third power-play and his second of the game at 1:19. The Thoroughbreds came back again when Czerkowicz set-up Hunter Thayer at 14:18 to make it 6-5. Jeff Alexander sealed it with an empty-net goal at 19:43.

Both teams return to action on January 11 and 12 with a NESCAC cross-over weekend. The Spartans host Middlebury at 7:00 pm on Friday, while the Thoroughbreds host Williams at the same time. The teams will trade opponents for 4:00 pm face-offs on Saturday.