Murphy Scores Twice to Lead Men’s Hockey Past Rivier, 5-1

NASHUA, N.H. – The MCLA Men's Ice Hockey team took to the road this evening for a MASCAC clash with the Rivier University Raiders at the Conway Arena. Rocco Stolz stopped 46 shots, and four Trailblazers combined for five goals, including two from Quinn Murphy, as MCLA notched its fifth win of the season.

THE BASICS

• Date: Thursday, February 12, 2026
• Score: MCLA 5, Rivier 1
• Records: MCLA Trailblazers 5-14-3 (MASCAC 3-7-1) | Rivier University Raiders 2-19-1 (MASCAC 2-9-0)

HIGHLIGHTS

• Rivier opened the scoring with less than a minute remaining in the first period when a shot by Payton Kender (PP, 19:10 of 1^st period, assisted by Caparco) snuck through traffic and into the goal while the Raiders were on a power play. Michael Caparco was credited with the assist on the only goal of the first period.
• The Trailblazers opened the second period with a power play of their own after a Rivier player was called for a holding penalty as the first period expired. The road team needed all of 25 seconds to convert on that power play opportunity. After winning the opening faceoff, the Trailblazers brought the puck into the Rivier defensive end. They cycled the puck around a couple of times until junior forward Easton Moore (Red Deer, AB / Florida Eels) found an angle that he liked and snapped off a wrist shot from the left faceoff circle. The Raiders' netminder was up to the task but came too far out of the crease so that when the puck rebounded in front of the net, junior forward Quinn Murphy (Champaign, IL / Philadelphia H.C.) (PP, 0:25 of 2^nd period, Moore and Craig) was there to clean up. Moore and junior defenseman Spencer Craig (Glendale, AZ / Northern Cyclones) both picked up helpers. The assist was Craig's fourth of the year.
• MCLA took the lead a bit past the midpoint of the second period when junior forward Luke Rhoss (Monroe, NY / Philadelphia H.C.) brought the puck along the home team's blue line, only to have the puck poked away, but before the Raiders could capitalize on the opportunity, Rhoss picked the defender's pocket and chipped the biscuit ahead to sophomore forward Sam Zis (Boulder, CO / Connecticut Chiefs) who left the puck behind for Rhoss to snap past the screened goaltender. The goal was Rhoss' second of the season, and the assist was number five for Zis.
• The Trailblazers were able to double their lead before the second period completed when Craig and Rhoss each picked up their second points of the night. This time, it was Craig scoring the goal and Rhoss supporting. After a scrum behind the home team's net, Rhoss came out of the left corner with the puck and passed out to Craig at the left point, where he found an angle he liked and wristed off a laser through traffic for his third goal of the season. Combined with his assist earlier in the period, it was Craig's third career multi-point game, all of which have come been in the form of a goal and an assist in games against Rivier (during MCLA's 4-1 win earlier this season on December 4^th, and in the Trailblazers' 4-2 win on December 7^th of 2024) but this was the first time he did so at Rivier's barn. The feat was the sixth time that Rhoss has posted multiple points, with the last having been a one goal and one assist effort against Salem State last season on January 25, 2025.
• MCLA wasn't done with punishing Rivier for their misdeeds, adding another power play goal as the clock ticked under three minutes remaining when Murphy (17:21 of 3^rd period, Herrera & Moore) notched his second goal of the night, this time burying a feed from junior forward Christopher Gallagher (Albany. NY / Islanders H.C.) who had been below the goal line to the left of the net. The goals brought Murphy's season total to five, while the helpers were the fourth for Gallagher and the eleventh for Moore. It was also the eighth time Moore has posted a multi-point game in his career and fourth of this season, following his most recent being a one goal and one assist showing against Worcester State on January 31^st.
• The Trailblazers added an empty net goal just before the final buzzer when junior defenseman Joshua Romanowski (Amenia, NY / Connecticut Chiefs) pushed the puck out of a scrum deep in the MCLA defensive end out to freshman defenseman Kieran Kenny (Edmonton, AB / Philadelphia H.C.), who sent the bit of rubber the length of the ice and into the vacated goal. This was the second time this season that Kenny found the back of a net, and it was the first time that Romanowski provided an assist this year, and the second of the defenseman's career.
• The Raiders pressured the Trailblazers' freshman goalie Roco Stolz (Bloomfield Hills, MI / Charlotte Rush) all game. Rivier outshot MCLA 13-9 in the first period and then doubled them up in both the second and third period, 18-9 and 16-8, respectively, but the first-year netminder held strong. Stolz advanced to 5-11-2 after stopping 46 of 47 shots.
• Josh Kirton took the loss for Rivier, falling to 2-9-1 after recording 21 saves.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS

• Shots: MCLA 26, Rivier 47
• Saves: MCLA 46, Rivier 21
• Faceoffs Won: MCLA 47, Rivier 25
• Penalty/Minutes: MCLA 7/25:00, Rivier 7/22:00
• Power Plays: MCLA 2 for 5, Rivier 1 for 7

UP NEXT

On Saturday, MCLA will be back in action when it hosts Framingham State University at the Peter W. Foote Vietnam Veterans Memorial Rink for a MASCAC matchup with the Rams. The puck will drop at 5 p.m.

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