MANCHESTER, N.H. – The Saint Anselm College men's hockey team saw its two-game winning streak in New England Hockey Conference (NEHC) play halted as visiting New England College scored twice in each of the first two periods and held on for a 4-3 win on Friday evening at Sullivan Arena.

Box Score

New England College (8-3-0, 5-2-0 NEHC) led 3-1 early in the second period before Saint Anselm (5-5-0, 3-4-0 NEHC) battled back to tie the game on goals from Jon Pallotta and Lawrence Taylor IV. However, Kyle Arenson scored shortly after Taylor IV tied the game and the Pilgrims held on for just their second win in the last 13 meetings with the Hawks.

The Pilgrims opened the scoring on Connor Fries' first of two goals on the night at 8:19 of the first period but the Hawks responded almost immediately, as Peter Sikalis evened the game 58 seconds later. Jeremy Carignan gained control of the puck, circled around behind the net, found Sikalis on the top of the left circle and the senior fired a wrist shot past Brett Kilar.

Fries added a power-play goal at 14:37 of the first period to give New England College a 2-1 lead after one. The Pilgrims doubled their advantage inside the first four minutes of the second period, as Bryce Nielsen made it 3-1 3:16 in.

Saint Anselm climbed back to within one a little over four minutes later, as Pallotta matched Sikalis with his fourth goal of the season. After Brian Cameron generated a turnover in the offensive end, Justin Longo attempted a wrap-around and the puck fell to Pallotta on the back door for an easy tap in.

At 16:13 of the second period, Carignan dug the puck off the right-wing boards and back to Taylor, who unleashed a shot from just inside the blue line that somehow got by Kilar to tie the score at 3-3. The goal was Taylor's second of the season and the third of his career, while Carignan's two assists on the night gave him five multi-point performances in the last eight games.

The game was not tied for long, however, as Arenson found the back of the net 1:09 later with the game-winner. Neither team generated many scoring chances in the final period, despite the Hawks holding an empty net for the final 1:41 as they sought a tying goal.

Kilar improved to 7-3-0 on the season by making 25 saves for the Pilgrims, while Shane Joyce made 29 saves but took the loss to fall to 5-4-0. New England College held a slender 33-28 lead in shots on goal in the game.

Saint Anselm is off until heading to the Middlebury Holiday Classic on Dec. 30-31. The Hawks will face host Middlebury in their opener at the tournament on Friday, Dec. 30 at 1 p.m.