Manchester, N.H. (November 30) -- In its home opener on Friday night, the Saint Anselm men's hockey team played to a 3-3 tie with Tufts University in front of a standing room crowd at Sullivan Arena.

The visiting Jumbos got on the board just 34 seconds into the game when senior Kurt Hertzog (Long Beach, Calif.) collected his own rebound and poked it past Saint Anselm goalie Jason Zuck (Clifton, N.J.) for the early 1-0 lead. Tufts extended the lead to 2-0 with 5:54 left in the first period when senior Ross Gimbel (Ann Arbor, Mich.) scored his first goal of the season and 30th of his career off assists from Fredrik Mellgren (Shoreview, Minn.) and Greg O'Connell (Cohasset, Mass.).

The Hawks got on the board with 6:32 left in the second period when freshman John Penny (Andover, Mass.) scored his first career goal off assists from Tom Kerwin (Whitman, Mass.) and Joe Fernald (Braintree, Mass.). Tufts outshot the Hawks by a 13-12 margin in the middle period and held a 2-1 lead heading into the second intermission.

In the opening minute of the third period, Tufts nearly made it 3-1 when a shot by O'Connell got past Zuck and went off the crossbar. Less then a minute later it was the Hawks that found the back of the net when Pat Forshner (Natick, Mass.) scored on the power play and tied the game at 2-2. Before the crowd settled back into their seats, the Jumbos jumped into lead again when Gimbel tallied a power-play score and Tufts regained the lead at 3-2 just 2:09 into the third.

The high-scoring period continued with 12:03 left when junior Matthew Lowe (Stoughton, Mass.) scored his first career goal to tie the game up at 3-3. Fernald picked up his second assist of the game for the Hawks on the goal, along with junior Mike Nunziato (Guilford, Conn.). Despite a number of scoring chances for both teams, the game headed to overtime tied at 3-3.

With 1:22 left in the extra period, Cory Korchin (Fountain Valley, Calif.) nearly won the game for the Jumbos, but his shot glanced off the post and was covered up by Zuck in the best scoring chance of the overtime period.

For the Hawks, Zuck finished the game with 32 saves in his second tie of the season. James Kalec (East Amherst, N.Y.) made 31 saves for the Jumbos in the draw.

With the tie, the Hawks are now 1-0-2 overall, while Tufts sits at 2-2-1. Saint Anselm is back in action on Saturday afternoon when the team hosts Connecticut College at Sullivan Arena. Faceoff is scheduled for 3 p.m.