HOOKSETT, N.H. – The Saint Anselm College men's ice hockey team suffered its first loss of the 2021-22 season, falling to Queen City Cup rival Southern New Hampshire University on Friday night by a 6-4 score.

The Hawks drop to 4-1-1 on the season with a 1-1-1 record in Northeast-10 Conference contests. The Penmen improve to 5-1-0 overall and 4-0-0 in league contests. Saint Anselm is back in action on Saturday, Nov. 20 with the opening puck drop against Anna Maria College from Sullivan Arena at 7 p.m.

Saint Anselm had goals from senior Sean Healy (Quincy, Mass.), junior Andrew Andary (Macomb, Mich.), sophomore Liam Lyons (Gloucester, Mass.) and junior Jack Murphy (Marshfield, Mass.) in the contest. Freshman Hunter Brackett (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) notched two assists for his first career points.

The Penmen struck first at 4:04 of the opening frame as Jake Cox capped off a two-on-one with George Thurston, beating junior goaltender Nick Howard (Burlington, Mass.) into the upper-half of the goal.

Southern New Hampshire doubled its lead at 11:55 of the first period as Jack Gray drove into the attacking end. A Hawks defender slid to break up the play, but Gray made a quick toe drag to avoid the defender. Gray lifted a wrist shot by Howard to give the hosts a 2-0 lead.

The Penmen netted a power play goal at 18:49 of the opening period as Cole Stewart redirected a cross-crease pass from Thurston to take a 3-0 lead late in the first period.

The Hawks cracked the scoresheet with a goal in the final minute of the period, marking the fourth tally of the opening 20 minutes. Healy fired a shot from the right point that deflected off a Penmen defender and into the back of the net.

Thurston grabbed the three-goal lead back for the Penmen as he cleaned up a rebound from a point shot on the power play. That marked the second extra-skater goal for the Penmen in the contest at 3:17 of the second stanza.

Andary cut the deficit to two as he finished off a long wrist shot from freshman Luke Mix (Winchester, Mass.) at 5:27, pushing the score to 4-2 in favor of the Penmen.

With 1:29 left in the second period, the Hawks cut the deficit back to one as Lyons managed to walk off the wall and fire a tough angle shot by Penmen goaltender Adam Mercer, picking the upper half of the net for Lyons' first career goal and point, pushing the score to 4-3.

Once again the, squads traded quick goals as Thurston and the Penmen found the twine for the third time on the power play at 6:33 of the final stanza. Murphy responded for the Hawks just 1:30 later.

Saint Anselm was forced to pull its goaltender in search of the equalizer late in the third, but Thurston would ice the game with an empty netter, completing his hat trick and giving the Penmen a 6-4 win.

The Hawks out-shot the Penmen by a 46-35 margin, including 20-7 in the third period. Southern New Hampshire was three-for-six on the power play while Saint Anselm was scoreless on its three chances with the extra player. The Hawks won 60 of the contest's 91 faceoffs as junior Matt Hayes (Salem, N.H.) led the team with 22-30 draws. Senior Anthony Iacullo (Barrington, Ill.) and sophomore Will Christensen (Ridgefield, Conn.) won 15 and 13 each respectively.

Howard made 29 saves in the losing effort wile Mercer stopped 42 shots on goal.