MANCHESTER, N.H. – Senior Joe Tebano (Glastonbury, Conn.) scored to tie the game with 1:59 left in the opening period, but the Saint Anselm College men's ice hockey team dropped a 4-1 decision to 11th-ranked University of Massachusetts Boston, as the Beacons scored three goals in the third period Friday night at Thomas F. Sullivan Arena.
The Hawks fall to 5-6-3 on the season, including 3-4-3 in ECAC East play, while the Beacons improve to 13-1-2, 6-1-2.
UMass Boston jumped out to a 1-0 lead 3:07 into the contest when Cody Dixon received a feed from Mike Kuhn and took a shot from the point that trickled through traffic and into the back of the net.
Saint Anselm gained the equalizer on the power play at the 18:01 mark of the period when senior Greg Merrill (Brighton, Mich.) sent a pass from the right point to the right circle for sophomore Bryan Sullivan (Burlington, Mass.), who sent a feed through the slot toward the left post to set up a Tebano one-time strike.
The game stayed that way into the third period when Kuhn tracked down a lead pass from Albee Daley at the left end line and released a shot from an impossible angle that caromed off the skate of Saint Anselm senior goaltender Nick Dries (Commerce Township, Mich.) and into the net for a shorthanded tally that put UMass Boston in front, 2-1, just 2:59 into the stanza.
The Beacons grabbed some insurance with 5:23 to play as Zac Zakas pushed a pass from behind the net to the left-circle boards for Frankie DeAugustine, who blasted a puck on net that trickled through Dries before being poked in at the right post by Zakas.
UMass Boston sealed it on an empty-net goal from Sam Boyd that was assisted by Travis Daniel and Peter MacIntyre with 1:23 on the clock.
Dries made 31 saves for the Hawks, while UMass Boston goaltender Billy Faust stopped 37 shots. Saint Anselm held a 38-35 edge in shots, including 19-6 in the first period. The Hawks were 1-for-7 with the man-advantage, while the Beacons came up empty on five extra-skater opportunities.
The contest was part of Saint Anselm ice hockey's annual four-game Pink in the Rink weekend, in which the men's and women's teams raise both money and awareness for breast cancer. This year, the teams are donating all earned monies to the Breast Cancer Research Wing at Catholic Medical Center in Manchester.
The Hawks return to action Saturday, Jan. 18 at 4 p.m. when they continue Pink in the Rink weekend by playing host to seventh-ranked Babson College at Sullivan. 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 and following us on Twitter @STAHawks.
