Amherst, MA - The Castleton State College men's ice hockey team dropped an ECAC East/NESCAC cross-over contest at Amherst College 3-1 on Friday night at Orr Rink.

Amherst scored a pair of third period goals, and Jonathan LaRose stopped 38 shots to lead the 9-4-1 Lord Jeffs to the win.

After skating through a scoreless, and relatively uneventful first period, Amherst broke through 2:45 into the second stanza to take a 1-0 lead. Mark Colp scored his sixth goal of the season to break the scoreless tie. Colp got in behind  a defender, and beat Castleton goaltender Seth McNary to the puck to tap in a score while being hauled down from behind. Junior points-leader Keith Nelson picked up his team-leading 11th assist on the score.

Ted Vickers scored what proved to be the game winner 6:23 into the third period off a rebound. Jeff Landers found Shane Lennox on his way in for a breakaway on McNary. Lennox's initial shot was saved, but the puck popped up above the Spartan goal, and fell to Vickers who crashed the net for his fifth goal of the year.

Castleton cut the lead in half with a little less than 1:30 to go in the contest as Kirk Bolduc scored his second goal of the season off assists from Ryan Bartlett and Jeff Alexander. Following the goal, the Spartan pulled McNary in favor of an extra skater, but Will Collins sent home an empty netter with four second remaining to put the game away.

McNary ended the night with 26 stops in the losing effort for 7-7-2 Castleton.