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Purple Knights Men Fall to NEC 4-1

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Created on Sunday, 20 November 2011 06:05

Written by George Commo

St. Mike's Gets Early Lead ... Can't hold It

Courtesy St. Michael's Sports Information

SOUTH BURLINGTON - The Saint Michael's College men's ice hockey team took an early 1-0 lead against New England College before falling 4-1 on Saturday at Cairns Arena in an Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) East contest. The Purple Knights slipped to 1-3-1 overall and 1-2-1 in conference play while the Pilgrims improved to 5-2 and 4-2. New England College is ranked 15th in the U.S. College Hockey Online (USCHO) Division III national poll this week.

For Saint Michael's, freshman Mark Higgins (Plainville, Mass./Bridgewater Bandits) netted his first collegiate goal and junior goalie Mike Dizgun (Kirkland, Quebec/OCN Blizzard) made 18 saves for the Purple Knights.

For the Pilgrims, freshman James O'Reilly (Charleston, S.C./Yarmouth Mariners) scored twice while senior Aki Uola (Turku, Finland/New England Huskies) chipped in a goal and an assist. Sophomore Samuli Turunen (Joensuu, Finland/Jokipojat) added a tally while classmate Sebastian Anderson (Sundyberg, Sweden/Sollentuna) made 21 saves.

In the first period, Dizgun made a big save at 13:07 to keep the Pilgrims off the board when a New England College player batted down the puck and sent a hard shot towards net. With 4:02 left on the clock, Saint Michael's took the lead with Higgins converting on a power play opportunity. At the end of the first period, the Purple Knights killed a 4 on 3 power play to keep the 1-0 lead.

The Pilgrims pulled away in the second period, netting three goals. Uola converted first for New England College, putting one past Dizgun 5:05 into the stanza while O'Reilly followed up 59 seconds later with another tally. Saint Michael's continued to apply offensive pressure sending a flurry of four shots at Anderson in the 10th minute. With 4:44 left on the clock, Turunen converted again for the Pilgrims.

9:18 into the third period, Dizgun stepped up, turning away a backhanded shot and deflecting a hard, high shot one minute later. The Pilgrims scored the final goal of the game with 58 seconds on the clock when O'Reilly put one in the open net.

The Purple Knights hit the road on Tuesday to face Assumption College in a Northeast-10 Conference contest at 6:05 p.m.