RUTLAND, Vt. – The Saint Anselm College men's ice hockey team claimed the Terry Moran Invitational Tournament title on Saturday, downing the hosts from Castleton University by a 4-3 margin in the championship game.

Saint Anselm improves to 7-2-1 on the season, its best start through 10 games since the 2012-13 season (7-2-1). Castleton (3-6-0) battled back from an early three-goal deficit but could not complete the comeback, despite striking three times in the third stanza.

Senior Andrew Andary (Macomb, Mich.) was named the Most Valuable Player of the tournament, scoring three goals with two assists (3-2=5) in the two-game series. He logged the game's first goal on Saturday, scoring just 3:59 into the second period and set up his team's next goal less than three minutes later.

Senior Matt Hayes (Salem, N.H.) scored that aforementioned goal, assisted by Andary and classmate Jack Murphy (Marshfield, Mass.), to create a 2-0 lead near the start of the second. Murphy was at it again just 1:25 into the third, assisting a goal by sophomore Max Burum (Marshfield, Mass.) to up the visitors' lead to 3-0.

Castleton responded with two strikes within 1:19, the first goal coming on the power play, to cut into the Hawks lead by a 3-2 margin early in the third period.

Sophomore Chase Reynolds (Middletown, Conn.) recreated a two-goal bulge for Saint Anselm, scoring less than a minute after the back-to-back Castleton goals, off a set-up by Hayes with just 6:36 elapsed in the third period.

Castleton rounded out the scoring less than a minute later, creating the final 4-3 margin of victory for Saint Anselm. In total, four goals (three by Castleton) were scored in less than three minutes between 4:29 and 7:17 of the third period.

Hawks netminder Nick Howard (Burlington, Mass.) did the rest, coming up with five big saves in the final 10-plus minutes of regulation time to maintain his team's tournament victory. He has now won three starts in a row for the Hawks, with all three coming away from the friendly confines of Sullivan Arena.

Saint Anselm held the narrow edge in shots on net (30-to-28) but was whistled for 22 minutes worth of penalties, giving Castleton six power play opportunities. It was the Hawks, however, that scored twice on their three man-up chances – Castleton scored once with the extra skater.

Reynolds and Howard also collected some hardware from the tournament as they were named to the All-Tournament Team along side Andary.

Saint Anselm hosts Southern New Hampshire in back-to-back Northeast-10 Conference games starting Friday, Dec. 2 at 7 p.m. The Saturday game against the Penmen kicks off at 4 p.m. from Sullivan Arena.