Amherst College scored three goals in the third period to defeat the nationally ranked Hamilton College Continentals 4-1 in a NESCAC men's hockey game at Russell Sage Rink on Saturday night.

The Continentals wore custom jerseys for the game in collaboration with the Hamilton College Wish Makers Club to raise funds for the Central New York chapter of the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Two special Wish Kids from Central New York, Kyla from Onondaga County and Melissa from Madison County, took part in the ceremonial puck drop along with Hamilton Captain Brandon Willett '18 and Amherst Captain Thomas Lindstrom.

Hamilton (9-5-1, 4-5-1 NESCAC) dropped its third straight conference game while the Mammoths snapped their three-game losing streak and improved to 6-6-3 overall and 4-3-3 in the NESCAC. The Continentals are ranked 10th by D3hockey.com and 13th by USCHO.com in the website's Division III poll.

Max Roche struck first for Amherst with a short-handed goal 13:16 into the first period. Hamilton was breaking out of its own zone when Roche poked the puck away from Jason Brochu '19 at center ice for a breakaway goal. Amherst had a 1-0 lead at the end of the first period.

Brochu evened the score with 3:41 remaining in the second period. Amherst dumped the puck into the Hamilton zone to get a line change, and Josh Labonte '21 quickly gathered the puck out of the corner and chucked it to Sterling Bray '20 at the far blue line. Bray passed to Brochu skating into the Amherst zone for a breakaway. Brochu deked around an outstretched Connor Girard (22 saves) and backhanded the puck into the net for his eighth goal of the season and his sixth goal in the last four games.

After nearly 11 scoreless minutes in the third period, Amherst's Noah Gilreath broke the tie with the game-winning goal at the 10:59 mark. Anthony Tirabassi '20 (31 saves) attempted to clear the puck from behind the net but Steve Mallory knocked it away. Tirabassi scurried back into the net just in time to stop Joey Lupo's shot with a stick-less blocker and again he denied a shot by Mallory, but the rebound kicked out to the faceoff circle and Gilreath slapped a one-timer into the net.

Amherst added two insurance goals in the final minutes. Will Vosejpka scored his first of the year with help from Mallory at 13:21, and Joey Lupo and Tyler Granara dished out the assists for Jack Fitzgerald's power-play goal with 2:35 remaining.

Hamilton is back in action at Russell Sage Rink on Sunday, Jan. 21 for a non-conference game against SUNY Canton at 7 p.m.