New Bedford, MA --- Junior Rob Dudley (Douglas, MA) recorded a hat-trick while fourth-year Billy Manning (Stoughton, MA), third-year Mike Grzelek (Watertown, MA) and sophomore Dave McDonald all notched two points apiece to help lead UMass Dartmouth to a 7-0 victory over Worcester State in MASCAC men's ice hockey action this evening.

With the win the Corsairs are now in first-place in the conference with an overall record of 16-6-1 and 11-4-1 in the MASCAC - a one-point lead over Salem State.

The Lancers slip to 9-10-2 and 5-9-3 in league play and remain in fifth-place. Should WSU fall to Fitchburg State on Saturday evening at 7:30 that could set the stage with Westfield State next Thursday evening at Horgan Rink (5:30 PM) for the sixth seed in the upcoming MASCAC Tournament.

Manning opened the games scoring in the first period with the only tally of the stanza at 5:16.

Dudley then led the charge in the second as he put in his first goal of the match at 4:45 before senior Jason Stahl (Londonderry, NH) and Nick Marquis (Londonderry, NH) recorded markers five seconds apart for the 4-0 lead.

In the third two goals by Dudley sandwhiched a McDonald goal to complete the games scoring. Dudley turned the trick with 19:23 on the clock.

Fourth-year Colin Tracey (Medford, MA) recorded 18 stops in his second career shutout while junior Bryan Kalczynski (Tonawanda, NY) and sophomore Mark Evans (Ludlow, MA) combined for 32 stops in the defeat.

The contest was a relatively clean game as each side only had two penalties and no goals were scored with the extra-man advantage.

With tonights setback, Worcester State has not scored a goal in 120 minutes and it marks the fourth time they have been held off the scoreboard this season, twice coming at the hands of the Corsairs.