Box Score
MANCHESTER, N.H. – Saint Anselm College suffered a 3-2 defeat at the hands of New England College on Thursday night in New England Hockey Conference men's action at the Sullivan Arena in Manchester, N.H.
The Hawks wrap up the first semester 6-3-1 overall and 4-2-1 in the NEHC, while the Pilgrims improve to 7-3-1 and 4-2-1 in league games. Saint Anselm is off until January 8 when the Hawks host UMass Boston in an NEHC matchup scheduled for 7:00 p.m.
After a 20 minute delay to deal with an issue with the ice, the Pilgrims broke open the scoring 4:12 into the first period as Cheyne Matheson fired a shot on net that was blocked down as the rebound came out to Kyle Manlow. Manlow tried to jam the puck past Shane Joyce (Pembroke, Mass.), but Joyce stopped the original attempt. Bryce Nielsen came in from behind the net and worked the puck over the goal line to give the visitors a 1-0 lead.
Nearly five minutes later NEC extended their lead to 2-0 as Brett Kilar stick poked the puck free leading to a breakout for the Pilgrims. Chris Santello started the break by getting the puck ahead to Kyle Arenson and he played the puck ahead to Andreas Zollner racing up the left wing. Zollner put the puck on his stick and flicked a wrister top shelf for the two goal lead.
Saint Anselm cut the deficit in half before the end of the opening period as Mark Meads (Middleton, Mass.) netted his eight goal of the season. Bryan Sullivan (Burlington, Mass.) came down the left side and fed the puck to Peter Sikalis (Acton, Mass.). Sikalis worked his way in front of the net and put a back-handed shot on net that was turned away by Kilar. The rebound caromed out to a wide open Mears who buried the shot on the open net to make it a 2-1 game.
The Hawks tied the game early in the second period off the stick of CJ Blaszka (Brookfield, Conn.). Patrick Horrocks (Braintree, Mass.) took possession deep in the Saint Anselm zone and skated through the middle of the ice. Horrocks played a quick pass to Jeremy Carignan (Amos, Quebec) on the blue line, who dropped the puck back to a charging Blaszka. The junior fired a slap shot on net that tucked inside the top right corner and knotted the game at 2-2.
Both teams had chances the rest of the period as each team hit the post once before the final intermission, but neither team could find the back of the net.
NEC got the game-winner with just over six minutes remaining in regulation as Chris Santello forced a turnover at the blue line and skated into the Hawks zone with only Joyce to beat. Santello went glove side to beat Joyce and put the Pilgrims on top 3-2.
The Hawks made one final push playing with an empty net for the final 1:37 of the game, but could not find an equalizer as New England College pulled out the 3-2 victory.
Saint Anselm held a 39-23 advantage in shots, while both teams went 0-2 on power play chances. Brett Kilar made 37 saves on 39 shots to pick up his seventh win of the season. Shance Joyce made 20 saves in the setback.
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