FOXBORO, Mass. – Junior Sean Jenkins (Boston, Mass.) scored a pair of goals and the Hawks vastly outshot the Skyhawks, but the Saint Anselm College men's ice hockey team fell to Stonehill College, 5-4, Tuesday evening at the Foxboro Sports Center in Northeast-10 ice hockey action.
Saint Anselm will wrap up the 2013-14 regular season at 10-11-4 overall with a 4-1-0 mark in the NE-10, while the Skyhawks, who have one game left to play, improve to 15-9-0, 10-0-0 NE-10.
Stonehill broke out to a 2-0 lead as it received unassited goals from Richard Harris and Will Baker by the 9:31 mark of the opening frame.
The Hawks had the answer to the Skyhawk rally, however, when Jenkins got the offense going for Saint Anselm. Jenkins picked up a pass from senior Eric Czapka (Holland, Pa.) and shot the puck past Stonehill goaltender Chris Tasiopoulos, cutting the deficit to one at 2-1.
Saint Anselm evened the score at 2-2 to take things into the first break when junior Kody Grondin (Hampton, N.H.) received a pass from senior Greg Crovo (Melrose, Mass.) and found the back of the net at 15:20. Saint Anselm held an 18-3 edge in shots on goal in the first period. Crovo notched the assist skating in the 100th game of his career.
Each team tacked on a goal each at the start of the second, Nate Soter for the Skyhawks and Jenkins for the Hawks. Jenkins connected with Czapka for the second time of the night, as the Hawks once again came back to tie the game, this time at 3-3.
Stonehill notched a pair of power-play goals at the 9:32 and 11:04 marks of the middle frame, putting them back up by two at 5-3. Senior Joe Tebano (Glastonbury, Conn.) put the Hawks back within one as he utilized a pair of passes from junior Matt Buckley (Canton, Mass.) and sophmore Bryan Sullivan (Burlington, Mass.) and potted his 12th goal of the season with 19 seconds left in the frame.
Neither team found the net in the third period and Saint Anselm turned to senior goaltender Robert Kang (Glen Rock, N.J.), who stopped all six shots he faced in the stanza. Senior Nick Dries (Commerce Township, Mich.) made eight saves throughout the first two periods. Stonehill's Tasiopoulos made 46 stops for the Skyhawks, who were outshot by Saint Anselm, 50-19.
Saint Anselm tallied one power-play goal and was 1-for-5 on the extra-man advantage, while the Skyhawks were 2-for-3 with the extra skater.
The No. 2 seeded Hawks will challenge cross-town rival, No. 3 seeded Southern New Hampshire in the semifinal round of the Northeast-10 Championship on Saturday, Feb. 22 at 7 p.m on home ice for the Hawks – Thomas F. Sullivan Arena. Please visit the Saint Anselm College athletic department website or the Northeast-10 Conference website Wednesday afternoon for more information. 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).
