MANCHESTER, N.H. – The Saint Anselm College men's ice hockey team fell to Stonehill College in overtime by a 5-4 score in the Northeast-10 Conference First Round on Saturday.

The Hawks see their season come to a close at 13-12-2 overall and 10-6-2 in NE10 play. Stonehill advances to the NE10 semifinals with the win, improving to 7-18-2 on the season and 3-12-2 in conference contests.

Sophomore Will Christensen (Ridgefield, Conn.) led the Hawks offense with two goals while sophomore Tommy Schwartz (Ridgefield, Conn.) and senior co-captain Trevor Hott (Idaho Falls, Idaho) netted the other two Saint Anselm goals in the tilt. Senior co-captain Kilian Hammersmith (Glen Ellyn, Ill.) posted two assists for Saint Anselm as seven student-athletes recorded at least one helper in the contest.

The Hawks had the first scoring chance in the overtime period as freshman Chase Reynolds (Middletown, Conn.) walked out from behind the goal and fired a shot on Skyhawks netminder John Day. Day turned the shot attempt aside and made a follow up save on a shot by junior alternate captain Andrew Andary (Macomb, Mich.), all coming within the first 1:40 of the extra period.

Mike Seoane would net the game winning goal at 3:05 of the overtime period. Charles Page entered the Stonehill attacking zone and dropped a pass for John Peloso. Peloso fired a shot that was blocked by junior Mark Leach (Londonderry, N.H.). Peloso followed up the loose puck and fired a shot that beat junior goaltender Nick Howard (Burlington, Mass.) but the shot rang off the post with the rebound coming out to Seoane at the top of the crease. He managed to get the puck to cross the goal line to give the Skyhawks a 5-4 win in overtime.

Earlier in the contest, Christensen opened the scoring when he cashed in a rebound chance off a shot by junior Jack Murphy (Marshfield, Mass.) at 6:26 of the first period.

The Hawks doubled their lead just 3:22 later as Schwartz would one-time a wide shot attempt from Leach. Leach sent a shot through traffic that caromed off the end board and back out to the left faceoff on circle where Schwartz wired a shot into the upper right of the goal on the power play.

Tim Grable netted the first Stonehill goal of the contest at 13:44 as he fired a slap shot from the point into the upper half of the goal, which pushed the score to 2-1.

Christensen netted his second goal of the game and of the first period less than two minutes after the Skyhawks opening goal. Hammersmith and junior Matt Hayes (Salem, N.H.) managed to keep the puck in the attacking zone and get it into the left corner where Christensen collected the loose puck and banked a shot off of Day and into the back of the net, giving Saint Anselm a 3-1 lead.

Kyle Heath would cap a scoring frenzy in the first period as he wired a wrist shot off the crossbar and into the goal at 18:54 of the opening stanza which made the score 3-2, headed to the first intermission.

Ryan King tied the score at three on the power play at 3:08 of the second period. King fired a shot on Howard who managed to get some of the shot attempt but not all of it as the puck trickled into the goal, tying the score at three.

Hott gave the Hawks a 4-3 lead within the first two minutes of the third period as Reynolds walked out the left corner and behind the net, finding a crashing Hott for his second goal in as many games.

Max Pineo tied the contest once again at 13:03 of the third period. Pineo forced a turnover and won the race to a dump-in in the right corner. He put a shot on Howard that snuck through the goaltender and into the net, pushing the score to 4-4.

Both squads registered one power play goal on three chances. Saint Anselm held a 39-25 shots on goal advantage and won 40 faceoffs to 29 for Stonehill.

Howard made 20 saves in goal for the Hawks while Day posted 35 stops for the Skyhawks.