RUTLAND, Vt. – The Saint Anselm College men's ice hockey team scored three times in the second period on its way to a 3-2 win over Castleton University on Friday evening.

The Hawks improve to 2-0 on the young season while the Spartans fall to 1-2. Saint Anselm heads to Worcester State on Saturday, Nov. 6 with the opening puck drop scheduled for 6 p.m.

After a scoreless opening 20 minutes of play, the teams combined to strike five times in the second period. At 5:37 of the period, the Hawks would open the scoring on the power play. Senior Kevin Ouellette (Arlington, Mass.) would get the play moving, sending a pass to junior Mark Leach (Londonderry, N.H.) who sent a wrister on Spartans goaltender Kyle Alaverdy. Alaverdy made the initial stop but sophomore Thomas Schwartz (Ridgefield, Conn.) cleaned up the rebound for his second goal of the season.

The Spartans lit the lamp at 11:07 of the second stanza as Stone Steizl and Zach Papapetros were in on a two-on-one. Papapetros waited until the last second to fire a pass to Stelzl who was able to beat junior goaltender Nick Howard (Burlington, Mass.), who was sliding to his left.

Saint Anselm regained the lead just 76 seconds later on the second goal of the season by junior Andrew Andary (Macomb, Mich.). Junior Matt Hayes (Salem, N.H.) won a puck battle below the goal line and sent a pass to the right post for Andary, who quickly one-timed home the play from the doorstep.

The Hawks took advantage of a five-on-three power play, their second of the contest. Sophomore Alec Grace (Laguna Hills, Calif.) netted his first career goal just seven seconds into the two-man advantage. Sophomore Will Christensen (Ridgefield, Conn.) won the face off back to Grace who slid a pass over to Leach. He surveyed and sent a pass back to Grace who stepped into a wrist shot from the top of the circle, finding the top left corner of the goal to give Saint Anselm a 3-1 lead at 14:24 of the period.

Castleton pushed the deficit back to one as they found the back of the net on a five-on-three power play. Anton Teravainen won the offensive zone draw and immediately crashed the net, managing to redirect a wrist shot by Glenn Wiswell, sending the teams to the second intermission with the Hawks leading by just one, 3-2.

The Spartans pulled their goaltender looking to find the equalizer with just over one minute left in regulation but only recorded one shot and it went wide of the goal. Castleton fired 15 shots on goal in the final frame while the Hawks recorded 16 shots on goal.

Saint Anselm held a 41-33 edge in shots on goal. Saint Anselm was two-for-five on the man advantage while Castleton was one-for-five.

Howard stopped 31 of 33 shots on goal in the winning effort while Alaverdy made 38 saves. Alaverdy suffers his first loss of the season while Howard collects his second win.