SOUTH BURLINGTON, Vt. - The Saint Michael's College women's ice hockey team received 34 saves from junior Erin Stevens (Watertown, Conn./Connecticut Polar Bears), but the Purple Knights dropped their third one-goal decision of the season on Friday night, 2-1 against the University of Southern Maine at Cairns Arena.

Saint Michael's is now 0-3 overall and 0-3 in the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) East, while the Huskies, league counterparts, were opening their season. Southern Maine received the game-winning goal, a short-handed marker with 10:42 remaining, from freshman Julia Pearl (Essex Junction, Vt./Rice AAA Prep), playing in her first college contest just a town over from her hometown.

Stevens recorded 14 of her stops in the third period alone, while senior Madelena Santore (Millington, N.J./New Jersey Rockets) netted her first goal of the season.

Senior Kylie Blasen (Okemos, Mich./Honeybaked) recorded the tying tally for Southern Maine, while freshman Liz Bergstrom (Chanhassen, Minn./Chaska Hawks) had 18 stops.

Stevens came up with a point-blank save off of junior Kailey Bubier's (Auburn, Maine/Hebron Academy) shot less than five minutes into the contest before Santore put the hosts on the board soon thereafter.

Santore skated up the left wing before abruptly sliding back out in front and firing on net, and Bergstrom stretched behind her body to make a save. However, Santore banked a follow-up attempt off the goalie while drifting behind the net for her initial tally of the season at 14:42. Junior Melissa Coughlin (Franklin, Mass./Franklin) was credited with the assist after providing a breakout pass.

Stevens made another stop with less than three minutes to go, denying senior Christen Hart's (Saugus, Mass./Saint Mary's) shot out front while being pressured by a cluster of players, and Bergstrom turned away another Santore opportunity, this time a breakaway, with less than two minutes remaining in the period.

The Saint Michael's goalie stopped a Southern Maine two-on-one chance 30 seconds into the second period before the visitors struck for the equalizer with 10:54 to go. During another two-on-one, Blasen roofed a shot from close range from just outside the right face-off circle. Coughlin was turned away by Bergstrom during a Purple Knight odd-woman rush around the 2:50 mark.

At 10:42 of the final period, Pearl put her team on top, deking through a couple Saint Michael's players in the Purple Knight defensive end for an eventual breakaway and a short-handed tally. The hosts had an odd-player rush snuffed out by Bergstrom with less than seven minutes remaining before killing off a late penalty and earning a pair of chances to tie after pulling Stevens with 42 seconds on the clock. Freshman Ellia Héroux (Thunder Bay, Ontario/Thunder Bay Queens) swept a shot wide of the cage with 20 ticks left, and Santore's redirection out front at 11 seconds was stopped by Bergstrom.

The Purple Knights are back in action tomorrow, hosting Plymouth State University for another ECAC East contest at 3 p.m.