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South Easton, Mass. – The top two seeds in the Northeast-10
Ice Hockey championship were eliminated by the two bottom seeds
Wednesday night during semifinal action as #6 Stonehill College
defeated #1 Saint Anselm College, 7-4, and #5 Saint Michael’s
College was victorious over #2 Southern New Hampshire University,
4-2.
This sets up a championship final between the last two Northeast-10
champions. Saint Michael’s is making its sixth trip to the
finals, won the championship last year, while Stonehill won prior
and will be making its second appearance to the finals.
The first semifinal of the evening featured Stonehill and Saint
Anselm. The Skyhawks jumped out to an early 2-0 lead scoring twice
within the first seven minutes of action with goals from
James Florentino (West Roxbury, Mass.)
and Andrew Diozzi (Belmont, Mass.). Saint
Anselm cut the lead in half midway through the first half with a
goal by Tom Kerwin (Whitman, Mass.) but
that would be as close as the score would get as Stonehill kept
no-less than a two-goal advantage throughout the game.
Junior Pete Roundy (Simsbury, Conn.)
scored two goals for the Skyhawks, while sophomore goaltender
Mike Manna (Framingham, Mass.) came up
big in net with 37 saves. Saint Anselm senior Brian
Hartigan (Saugus, Mass.) scored two goals for the
Hawks and added an assist.
With the win Stonehill improves to 10-12-1, while Saint Anselm
finishes the year 10-15-1.
In the other semifinal contest it was Saint Michael’s that
jumped out early on Southern New Hampshire. Sophomore
Matt Rigtrup (Upper Montclair, N.J.), the
NE-10 Defensive Player of the Year, started the scoring for the
Purple Knights with an early first half power play goal to give
Saint Michael’s the 1-0 lead. Senior Ryan Mero
(Peekskill, N.Y.) tacked on another first half goal
for the Purple Knights increasing the lead to 2-0 as the teams
entered the first intermission.
Trailing 2-0 entering the second half, the Penmen responded scoring
two goals within the first five minutes of action with goals coming
from freshman Doug Boulanger (Beauport,
Quebec) and sophomore Bob Bryant (Nashua,
N.H.).
The game remained tied as the two teams entered the locker rooms
for the second intermission. It wasn’t until midway through
the third period when Saint Michael’s broke open the tie as
sophomore Nick Sheehan (Potsdam, N.Y.)
scored the game-winning goal with 7:43 remaining on the clock. The
Purple Knights would add an additional goal by freshman Brady Earle
(Columbia, Md.) as he took advantage of an empty net to secure the
4-2 victory with seconds remaining on the clock.
The NE-10 Goaltender of the Year, senior Tyler Bilton
(Penticton, British Columbia), made 37 saves in goal
for Saint Michael’s.
The win improves the Purple Knights to 10-15-2, while the Penmen
end the year with a record of 9-13-2.
Stonehill will face Saint Michael’s in the championship final
on Saturday, March 7. The time of the game is still to be
determined. Be sure to check the Northeast-10 website
(www.northeast10.org) for additional championship information.
With 15 member institutions the Northeast-10 is the second largest
NCAA Division II athletic conference in the nation. Its 23
championship sports provide athletic opportunities for over 5,500
student-athletes, the largest such program of any Division II
conference.
- NE-10 -
