Boston, MA (February 4) – Senior Coleman Noonan (Norfolk, MA) helped the Saint Anselm Men's hockey team win their third straight with an outstanding individual effort. Noonan had two goals, the eventual game winner, and an assist to lift the Hawks past the Beacons of UMass Boston 4-2.
Noonan put the first of his two goals in at the 9:52 mark of the first period on assists from Greg Crovo (Melrose, MA) and Timothy King (Weymouth, MA). The Hawks controlled the tempo and puck possession for most of the period. Both sides exchanged body blows with a physical first period. At the 14:16 mark Ryan Holley (Owings, Maryland) took advantage of a Hawks power play on an assist from Timothy King and Coleman Noonan to put the Hawks up 2-0 going into the first intermission.
Only 2:57 into the second period the Beacons got on the board with a power play goal when Mike DeGrazia (Novi, MI) scored from Rob Florentino (W. Roxbury, MA) and Eric Tufman (Abington, PA) to make the score 2-1 Hawks. Five minutes later Noonan answered right back at 8:42 with his second goal of the night, and eventual game winner, as he went top shelf off a feed from Paul Snell (Groton, MA) and Ryan Holley to put the Hawks up 3-1. UMass Boston responded with their second goal of the period at 13:34 when Matt Atsoff (Macomb, MI) converted on a pass from Florentino and John Hubbard (Arlington, TX) to close the gap and make it 3-2. The teams played a back and forth tempo style of hockey for the final six and a half minutes before going into the final intermission.
The Hawks started the third period the same way the ended the second period, playing high pressure. Their tenacity paid off 3:49 into the period when Nick Wheeler (Nashua, NH) scored unassisted with a slap shot from an impossible angle, at the bottom of the face-off circle to the left of the Beacon's goalie, to light the lamp and give the Hawks a 4-2 lead.
Both teams battled hard for the remainder of the third period with the Hawks emerging victors. Saint Anselm goaltender Robert Kang (Glen Rock, NJ) stopped 31 shots for the Hawks while Kevin Bendell (Denville, NJ) made 24 saves in goal for UMass Boston.
At the conclusion of this evening game Noonan moved up the Hawk hockey record books in career points and career goals. Noonan is now in 16th place in career points which ties him with Brett Smith 07' and moves in to 15th place in career goals sharing the spot with Ed King 76' and Steve Hooper 80'.
The Hawks, who are 9-6-1 overall, will be on the road again tomorrow to take on Babson College in an ECAC East match up.
Tomorrow's game versus Babson College will be the first ever "Just Cure Paralysis" Hockey Game. 100% of the proceeds from the game will be donated to The Thomas E. Smith Fight to Cure Paralysis Foundation. T-Shirts and wristbands will be sold to benefit the Foundation. There will also be a 50/50 raffle. Come join the Saint Anselm College Men's Ice Hockey team for a great ECAC East matchup that will also benefit a wonderful cause.
The start time for the game is scheduled for 4:00 pm at the Babson Skating Center in Wellesley, MA.
