SOUTH BURLINGTON, Vt. - The Saint Michael's College men's ice hockey team dropped a Northeast-10 Conference match-up to Stonehill College, 7-3, on Tuesday at Cairns Arena. The Purple Knights drop to 6-15-2 overall and 2-2-1 in the league, while the Skyhawks improve to 8-11-2 and 5-3-1. Saint Michael's clinched the fourth seed in the upcoming four-team NE-10 Tournament, while Stonehill will be among the top three.

Junior Tim McAuliffe (North Reading, Mass./Vermont Academy) led the way for the Purple Knights with two goals and an assist, while senior Brady Earle (Columbia, Md./The Gunnery) tallied a marker in his 100th career game. Junior Mike Dizgun (Kirkland, Quebec/OCN Blizzard) stopped 15 shots, while classmate Eric McGuirk (Rehoboth, Mass./Bridgewater Bandits) made seven saves in relief.

Sophomore Bill Carey (Weymouth, Mass./South Shore Kings) tallied two goals and dished out one helper for the visitors, while freshman Stephen Balsamo (Atkinson, N.H./Brewster Academy) scored the game-winning goal and had one assist. Six different players found the back of the net for the Skyhawks, and freshman Chris Tasiopoulos (Norwell, Mass./Thayer Academy) finished with 39 saves.

Carey put the Skyhawks on the board at 5:20 of the first frame and then Earle responded 23 seconds later to knot the score at one. Stonehill took a 2-1 lead with 2:16 left in the period when freshman Fabio Cuetara (Irvine, Calif./Cushing Academy) scored a power-play marker.

Stonehill extended its lead to 4-1 within the first four minutes of the second period, scoring twice during one 32-second stretch, before Carey tacked on his second goal at 12:04. McAuliffe countered with his first of the contest at 13:37, but the Skyhawks extended their lead with a marker 1:09 later. McAuliffe put home his second of the game 3:12 into the third period, making it 6-3, but Stonehill added on an empty-net goal with 1:00 remaining.

The Purple Knights return to action on Friday when they host Babson College for an Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) East match-up at 7 p.m.