MANCHESTER, N.H. - The Saint Anselm men's ice
hockey team closed out the regular season this evening with a trip
to Easton, Mass., to take on fellow Northeast-10 member Stonehill
College. For the second consecutive season, the Hawks finish
undefeated in the NE-10 regular season and clinched the top seed
for the postseason tournament. In their fifth and final NE-10
regular-season competition, the Hawks soared to a 7-2 defeat of the
Skyhawks to finish 4-0-1 in the NE-10. The win gives the
Hawks a final record of 13-11-1 (4-0-1 NE-10), while the Skyhawks
finish in fifth place at 9-15-1 (2-9 NE-10).
The Skyhawks took the first lead, striking twice in the opening
period. At 14:27 in the first, Dana Borges
knocked in a power-play goal from Pat Greene and
Angelo Todesca. Just over two minutes later,
the Skyhawks went up 2-0, as Borges and Todesca set up
Tyler Gordon at 16:37.
After the initial setback, the Hawks bounced back quickly,
netting five goals in the second period. Tri-captain
Nick Wheeler (Nashua, N.H.) netted the first goal
for the Hawks on a power-play just 1:06 into the second period.
Jim Toomey (Billerica, Mass.) then tied the
game at 3:13, netting a second power-play goal from Ryan
Clark (Wadsworth, Ohio) and Coleman Noonan
(Norfolk, Mass.).
At 5:03 in the second, tri-captain Coleman Noonan netted an
unassisted, breakaway goal to give the Hawks the lead, and at 8:06,
he drove in a shorthanded goal, to put the Hawks up 4-2. The
goal was Noonan's third shorthanded goal of the season, placing him
in fourth in the nation and first in the ECAC East; he also leads
both the Northeast-10 and the ECAC East in shorthanded points.
At 18:19, rookie Tucker Mullin (Andover,
Mass.) set up classmate Timothy King (Weymouth,
Mass.) for the fifth Hawk goal of the second period.
The Hawks then tacked on two more early in the third.
John Penny (Shelton, Conn.) scored for the Hawks
at 4:24, and Mike Richard (Derry, N.H.) netted a
third power-play goal at 6:03 to secure the Hawks a 7-2 victory and
secure the Hawks' sixth consecutive Northeast-10 regular-season
title.
Skyhawk goaltender Tyler Jackson made 33 saves
in the loss, and his Hawk counterpart Alex Wyse (Amherst,
N.Y.) turned aside 22 shots, finishing the regular season
with a career-high nine wins.
As the number-one seed, the Hawks receive a first-round bye in
the Northeast-10 Tournament. The team will return to action
on Wednesday, March 3rd, when they host the lowest remaining seed
in the semifinals of the tournament. The Hawks will be
looking for their first Northeast-10 Championship title since 2006,
after finishing with their highest winning percentage (.540) in
four seasons.
