MANCHESTER, N.H. – The No. 3 seed Saint Anselm College women's ice hockey team netted two second period goals in 50 seconds to down the No. 6 seed Saint Michael's College by a 2-1 score in the First Round of the New England Women's Hockey Alliance Championship on Tuesday.

The Hawks improve to 15-12-3 on the season while the Purple Knights see their season come to a close at 3-23-1.

Saint Anselm will advance to the semifinals for the fourth consecutive season and will meet the No. 2 seed and reigning league champions, Long Island University, on Friday, Mar. 4 at the Jason Ritchie Ice Arena in Winchendon, Mass. The opening puck drop is scheduled for 7 p.m.

Freshman Tyra Turner (Andover, Minn.) and senior Kelly Golini (Tewksbury, Mass.) potted the Saint Anselm goals in the second period. Senior Erin Meyers (Saint Paul, Minn.) lead all players with two points in the tilt, recording an assist on each Hawks goal. The trio is now tied for the team-lead with 28 points each on the season. The last time Saint Anselm had three student-athletes hit at least 28 points in a season came during the 2016-17 campaign.

Neither team managed to find the back of the net in the first period as the Hawks held a 17-9 shots on goal advantage.

Even with the shots advantage in the Hawks' favor, it was Saint Michael's who netted the game's first goal as Ella Saracco quickly fired a shot into the back of the net off a pass from Mikaela Langbacka. Langbacka collected a loose puck in the left corner and wired a pass in front of the goal for Saracco, who was standing on the right side of the cage, beating Hawks goaltender Allie Kelley (East Berne, N.Y.) with a shot into the upper half of the goal at 9:23 of the second frame.

Saint Anselm responded with a power play goal at 15:15 of the period as Turner scored her team leading 14th goal of the season. Meyers found sophomore Savannah Popick (Windsor, Conn.) at the point. Popick skated forward to the top of the slot and slid a pass to Turner who was on the doorstep and wristed a shot through the five-hole of Purple Knights goaltender Leah White.

50 seconds later, Golini netted her 13th goal of the season goal of the season and extended her point streak to 14 games when she quickly fired a shot off a feed from Meyers in front of the blue paint. Golini got the play started with an offensive zone faceoff win back to senior Kendra Currier (Middleton, Mass.) who sent a shot on White from the blue line. Meyers deflected the rebound chance to Golini on the right post and she buried her shot attempt into the near empty goal, which stood as the game-winning tally.

Saint Anselm held 13-5 shots on goal margin in the second period and applied pressure to Saint Michael's, limiting them to six shots in the final stanza.The Purple Knights were forced to pull White in the final minute of the third period, searching for the equalizer, but the Hawks defense did not allow any shots to reach Kelley, giving Saint Anselm a 2-1 win.

Both squads had just one power play chance in the contest with Saint Anselm connecting on its one opportunity was Saint Michael's did not cash in with the extra skater.

Kelley stopped 20 of 21 shots on goal for the Hawks, grabbing her 14th win of the season while White suffers the loss after making 39 saves on 41 shots on target.