GORHAM, Maine – Tucker Mullin (Andover, Mass.), Joe Tebano (Glastonbury, Conn.) and Liam McKillop (New York, N.Y.) each contributed a goal and an assist as the Saint Anselm College men's ice hockey team took down the University of Southern Maine, 5-2, Saturday afternoon at USM Ice Arena for ECAC Men's East hockey action.

With the win, the Hawks improve to 8-3-2 overall and 5-3-1 in the ECAC Men's East, while the Huskies drop to 6-9-0 and 3-6-0 in conference play.

Saint Anselm jumped on the board at 10:41 of the opening period when Mullin connected with Ahern and McKillop on a Hawk power play to stake claim on the 1-0 lead.

Mike Richard (Derry, N.H.) notched a goal of his own at 4:12 of the second period when he picked up a pass from Bryan Sullivan (Burlington, Mass.) and buried the puck past Southern Maine netminder Patrick Farrington.

Pushing the Hawk lead to three at 11:59 was John Hyslip (Andover, Mass.), who picked up a feed from Evan Gogonis (Northboro, Mass.). Greg Merrill (Brighton, Mich.) was also credited with an assist on the play.

McKillop potted his ninth goal of the season when he picked up a dish from Mullin at 5:08 of the third stanza and gave the Hawks their greatest lead of the game. Tebano also earned a helper on the play.

After jumping out to a generous 4-0 lead, the Hawks gave up two power-play goals within a minute of each other in the third period, allowing Southern Maine to come within two.

The Huskies were able to take advantage of a 5-on-3 situation and scored two power-play goals in 59 seconds. Alex Pompeo scored USM's first goal after taking passes from Ryan Seward and David Nies and beat Saint Anselm junior goaltender Robert Kang (Glen Rock, N.J.) from the left side at 12:44.  

Angelo Vrachnas then scored his power-play tally at 13:43 off assists from Matt MacDonald and Sam Guimond.

After the Huskies pulled Farrington for the extra skater with 2:32 remaining, the Hawks put the game out of reach when Johnny Daniels (Andover, Mass.) gathered a loose puck and passed it to Tebano for an empty-net goal with 1:12 to go.

Saint Anselm held a 28-26 advantage in shots on goal. Farrington finished with 23 saves, while Kang stopped 20 of 22 USM shots.

The Hawks will return to action Saturday, Jan. 18 when they play host to the University of Massachusetts Boston in a 7 p.m. puck drop at Thomas F. Sullivan Arena. Stay up-to-date with the latest news, including game previews and recaps, directly from the Saint Anselm College athletic department by liking us on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/STAHawks) and following us on Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/STAHawks).