SOUTH BURLINGTON, Vt. - The Saint Michael's College men's ice hockey team trimmed a two-goal deficit to one midway through the third period before sustaining a 5-3 setback to the University of New England on Saturday in Cairns Arena. The Purple Knights are 2-14-1 overall and 1-11-1 in the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) East, while the Nor'easters improved to 8-11-1 and 5-8.

Sophomore Kevin Altidor (Montreal, Quebec/Millbrook School) tallied a goal and an assist for Saint Michael's, junior Jeremy Wong (Montreal, Quebec/Tilton School) scored, and first-year Shawn Morrow (East Greenbush, N.Y./Kent School) netted the first goal of his college career. Junior AJ Pieprzak (Barrie, Ontario/Ridley College) tallied two assists to extend his point streak to eight games. Between the pipes, sophomore Michael Comitini (Hudson, Quebec/Cornwall Colts) made 19 saves. The hosts held a 40-24 advantage in shots.

First-year Trevor Fleurent (Biddeford, Maine/Portland Jr. Pirates) scored twice for the University of New England, and junior Jared Melman (San Jose, Calif./Portland Jr. Pirates) posted a goal and two assists. First-years Chris Harlow (Boston, Mass./New England Wolves) and Blaise Healy (Melrose, Mass./Tilton School) also scored, and junior Colby Drost (Franklin Lakes, N.J./Niagara) made 37 saves.

Harlow tipped in a teammate's pass out front to put the visitors ahead just 1:03 after the opening face-off before the Purple Knights knotted the game at 9:25, with Wong netting his ninth tally of the year, taking Pieprzak's feed into the slot and wristing a shot just under the crossbar.

Altidor put Saint Michael's up 2-1 2:29 into the second period, as Pieprzak sent a pass along the goal line to Alditor, who beat Drost low to the blocker side for his ninth goal. However, Fleurent countered 1:42 later, finishing a give-and-go with Melman. Healy and Fleurent then both scored during a 29-second stretch later in the period, with Healy slipping a shot just under the crossbar at 13:19 and Fleurent going to the back hand to make it 4-2.

Morrow cut his team's deficit to one 8:41 into the third period, redirecting first-year Josh Dickman's (Kapaa, Hawaii/Saint Paul's School) pass out front. The Purple and Gold gained a power-play opportunity with 2:58 remaining, including skating 6-on-4 for 14 seconds after pulling Comitini with 1:12 left, but Drost stopped the lone Saint Michael's shot in that time, a blast by first-year Danny Divis (Media, Pa./The Gunnery). Melman scored on an empty net with eight seconds remaining to clinch the win.

Saint Michael's plays five of its next six on the road, including heading back into Northeast-10 Conference play by traveling to Assumption College on Tuesday for a 6:05 p.m. opening face-off.