January 27, 2006                                                                            
Contact: Daniel O'Reilly
Phone: (802) 654-2929

SOUTH BURLINGTON, Vt. – The Saint Michael's College men's ice hockey team (6-8-3, 3-6-3 ECAC East, 2-2 NE-10) was defeated by Northeast-10 Conference rival Saint Anselm College (11-4-1, 10-3-1 ECAC East, 3-0 NE-10), 8-1, Friday evening at Cairns Arena.

For the Hawks, sophomore Colin Fitzpatrick (Westwood, Mass./KUA) scored a pair of goals and added an assist, and junior Josh Hechter (Winnipeg, Manitoba/Prince George Spruce Kings) assisted on three goals, while junior Jason Rafuse (Nepean, Ontario/North Country C.C.) stopped 15 shots and sophomore Bryan Wright (Reading, Mass./Bentley College) turned away eight shots in net.

For the Purple Knights, freshman Chris Healey (Salem, N.H./N.H. Jr. Monarchs) scored, and Derek Jackson (Clinton, N.Y./Gunnery School) and sophomore Adam Sullivan (Winthrop, Mass./Winthrop High) made 24 and 15 saves apiece.

The two teams played the first 12 minutes very evenly matched, before Saint Anselm went on a three goal flurry in just 2:41. At the 12:29 mark, following Nick Dancey's (Anaheim, Calif./American International) hooking penalty, sophomore Matt Grazioso (Quincy, Mass./Northfield Mt.) opened the night's scoring, receiving the puck behind the net after Jackson committed to his right side on a previous shot attempt. Grazioso was then able to complete the wrap around before the goaltender was able to regroup. Junior Nick Sacca (Arlington, Mass./Proctor Academy) scored 1:09 later, positioning himself just a few feet to the right of the goal crease. After a shot by Fitzpatrick was saved, the rebound bounced right to Sacca, whose slap shot put the Hawks up 2-0. With 4:50 remaining in the first period, sophomore Chris O'Brien (Watertown, Mass./N.H. Jr. Monarchs) took a shot that was initially saved by Jackson, but the junior was unable to hold the puck tight between his pads, and after it bounced back onto the ice, junior Brian Dobler (Jericho, N.Y./New York Apple Core) was waiting, and finished the job.

In the second period, 4:04 in, Healey received a pass, skating into a three-on-one situation, but was just barely denied by Rafuse, though he made up for the missed opportunity 1:46 later. Skating on the power play, the freshman received a pass from senior David Mullins (Montreal, Quebec/Governor Dummer), and took advantage of a defensive lapse, and trimmed the deficit to two, notching his fourth goal of the season.

Saint Anselm went on to score five unanswered goals over the next 34:10, however, two coming on the power play, receiving several chances off of rebounds and second effort opportunities. With Saint Michael's spending 28 minutes in the penalty box over the final two periods, the team was unable to stay close to the NE-10 leading Hawks, and junior Jared Silver (Montreal, Quebec/Tabor Academy) was unable to credit himself with a point, ending his consecutive point streak at nine games.

Saint Michael's will play again on Saturday with a 3 p.m. match up against New England College. Saint Anselm, meanwhile, will travel to Norwich University on Saturday for a 4 p.m. contest.