WORCESTER, Mass. – The third-seeded Saint Anselm College men's ice hockey team is set to face off against No. 1 Assumption University in the Northeast 10 Conference Championship on Saturday at 7:10 p.m. at the Worcester Ice Center.
The contest will be broadcast live on FloCollege, and there is no cost to attend the game.
Saint Anselm has reached the NE10 title game for the 15th time since its establishing in the 2003-04 season. With 11 championship victories to their credit, the Hawks hold the record for the most championships in league history. Most recently, Saint Anselm fell to Saint Michael's College, 5-1, in the 2024-25 NE10 Championship at Sullivan Arena.
The Hawks hold a 39-19-4 record in the all-time series, which dates back to Saint Anselm's inaugural game played against the Greyhounds on Dec. 6, 1969. Over four meetings in the 2025-26 regular season, Saint Anselm went 2-1-1 with wins coming both home and away.
This is the second-ever meeting between the two programs in the NE10 Championship, with the lone meeting coming back in the 2009-10 season as the Hawks downed the Greyhounds 10-1. Saint Anselm is 5-2-0 in all playoff meetings against Assumption, with an 0-1-0 postseason record through one road contest, a 7-5 semifinal round loss in 2023-24. The Greyhounds would go on to win the championship that season, the fourth in program history.
In the Hawks' NE10 Semifinal matchup at second-seeded Saint Michael's last Saturday at Cairns Arena, freshman Alec O'Connor scored 6:08 into the third overtime to lift the Hawks to a 3-2 win over the defending NE10 champions at Cairns Arena.
The game spanned 106:08, marking the longest game in NE10 ice hockey history, topping the previous record of 102:25 which was set on Feb. 23, 2019 in an NE10 Semifinals bout between the Hawks and Assumption.
The NE10 announced its All-Conference teams on Thursday afternoon, with the Greyhounds and the Hawks being well represented.
Assumption swept the major awards, winning Player, Defensive Player, Goaltender, Rookie, and Coach of the Year along with six All-Conference selections.
For Saint Anselm, freshman Sean Connolly was named to the First Team along with senior Cam Collins while senior captain Luke Linart was appointed to the Second Team. Connolly also made an appearance on the All-Rookie Team with three NE10 Rookie of the Week selections to his credit.
Connolly posted 23 points (9-14-23), ranking 10th in the NE10 in scoring as a freshman. He ranks second among conference defensemen in points and first among first-year skaters, with four of his nine goals this season coming on the power play. The Canton, Mass. native scored the game-tying and game-winning goals to secure the Hawks a 5-4 overtime victory over No. 6 Southern New Hampshire University in the NE10 First Round.
A semifinalist for the prestigious Joe Concannon Award, Collins has produced at a point-per-game pace for the Hawks this season, recording 33 points in 31 games. He ranks third in the NE10 with 24 assists and fourth in points per game, while his nine multi-point performances place him among the league leaders. The Raynham, Mass. native boasts a faceoff percentage of 54.4%, marking the sixth-best clip in the NE10.
Linart reached career highs in goals (12), assists (16), and points (28), ranking fifth in the NE10 in goals and seventh in points. He fueled a strong stretch for Saint Anselm near the midpoint of the season, tallying at least one point in eight of nine games (8-8-16) from Jan. 10 through Feb. 2. The Holland, Mich. native leads the team in goals (12), power-play goals (five), and game-winning goals entering the NE10 Championship game. In his career, Linart has skated in a program and conference-record 125 games.
Jonathan Surrette leads the charge for Assumption, posting 32 goals and 62 points in the 2025-26 campaign to become the all-time NE10 single-season leader in both categories, which were also national bests across all three NCAA divisions. Assumption has the top-ranked offense in the conference with 4.13 goals per game, while ranking third in scoring defense, allowing just 2.75 goals per contest. Additionally, the Greyhounds lead every program in the nation with 11 shorthanded tallies.
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