Manchester, N.H. (November 21)-The Saint Anselm men's ice hockey team fought back from a 3-1 deficit in the first period, to open the 2008-09 season with a 6-4 ECAC East victory over Skidmore College.

The Hawks were quickly down 2-0 in the first period as Skidmore forwards Alex Mykolenko (Kharkov, Ukraine) and Hunter Thayer (Shelburne, Vt.) each lit the lamp before the 14 minute mark.

Hawk freshman forward Ryan Holley (Owings, Maryland) put Saint Anselm on the scoreboard with just over 10 minutes in the first period off a pass from Nick Wheeler (Nashua, N.H.) to cut the lead to 2-1.

Less than a minute later the Thoroughbreds added another as Charlie Moroni (North Providence, R.I.) beat Hawk netminder Alex Wyse (Amherst, N.Y.) to make the score 3-1.

The second period was all Hawks, as Coleman Noonan (Norfolk, Mass.), Ryan Butler (Arlington, Mass.) and Paul Snell (Groton, Mass.) each beat Skidmore goalie Andrew Ross (McKinney, Tex.) to put the Hawks up 4-3.

Saint Anselm captain Tom Kerwin (Whitman, Mass.) started the scoring in the third period as he took a pass from Jim Toomey (Billerica, Mass.) to put the Hawks up 5-3. With less than five minutes in regulation, Thoroughbred captain Ted Gowan (Hamilton, N.Y.) cut the lead to 5-4 off a pass from Skidmore defenseman Alex Essaris (Dollard-Des-Ormaux, Quebec).

Just over one minute later, Toomey added another Hawk goal off a pass from Noonan to make it a 6-4 final in favor of the home team.

Toomey, Noonan, Snell, Holley, and Butler each had a goal and an assist to lead the Hawks to victory.

In goal for the Hawks, Wyse made 38 saves on 42 shots in his first action and victory for Saint Anselm College. Ross only faced 20 shots for the Thoroughbreds and made 14 saves in the losing effort.

The Hawks return to action tomorrow, November 22nd, as they will play host to Castleton State College at 4 p.m.