SOUTH BURLINGTON, Vt. – The Saint Michael's College women's ice hockey team fell by an 8-2 count against Division I College of the Holy Cross in New England Hockey Conference (NEHC) action at Cairns Arena on Saturday. The Purple Knights move to 3-14-1 overall and 1-10 in league play, while the Crusaders are 17-2 and 9-2. Holy Cross won last year's Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Open Tournament championship.

With a goal in Saturday's game, Saint Michael's senior Amanda Kempainen (Chazy, N.Y./Chazy Flyers U19) now was 18 career tallies, tying her for eighth in program history with Michelle Miaskiewicz '06 and Macey Thomas '14.

Kempainen and junior Kayla Kee (Newton, Mass./Newton South) both scored for Saint Michael's, with Kee logging her first career marker. Junior Carolyn Avery (Lexington, Mass./Lexington) and sophomore Jillian Witwicki (Danvers, Mass./Pingree School) both had assists. Junior Abby Burke (Bedford, Mass./The Rivers School) made 13 saves in the opening 25:43, classmate Erica Ragazzo (Mansfield, Mass./Ursuline Academy) had 11 stops in 14:17 and first-year Nicole Talcott (Colchester, Vt./Rice Memorial Prep) totaled six saves in the third period.

Holy Cross received points from 11 players. Sophomore Kara Violette (Biddeford, Maine/Saint Mark's) scored three goals, senior Mackenzie Boardman (Anchorage, Alaska (Brewster Academy) and junior Izzy Bagi (Branford, Conn./The Gunnery) both had one goal and three assists, first-year Julie Matthias (Thornton, Colo./Monarch) had one goal and one assist, and senior Taylor McGee (Pearl River, N.Y./Taft School) and sophomore Lauren Abbenante (Cranston, R.I./Worcester Academy) scored once. Junior Erin Hall (Pembroke, Mass./Southfield) registered two assists and sophomore Siobhan Burke (Westwood, Mass./Westwood) made eight stops for the win. Holy Cross went 3-for-4 on the power play, including two player-advantage tallies in the first period.

Saint Michael's potted the game's first goal at 6:23 as Witwicki passed up to Kee, whose point shot through traffic on the power play found the back of the net. Holy Cross countered at 9:55 when Abbenante's snap shot went glove side at 9:56 for a power-play goal. Markers by Violette and McGee at 16:38 and 18:32, respectively, propelled the visitors to a 3-1 lead after one period. McGee's shot trickled over the goal line after a scrum in front of the net.

Holy Cross received goals from four skaters in the second period. Bagi scored 32 seconds into the stanza before Matthias' power-play goal at 5:43. After Hall's shot was saved, Matthias pounced on the rebound and swatted the puck low past Burke. Boardman redirected a point shot from Gellner at 9:28 and Violette scored at 19:28 as the Crusaders owned a 7-1 advantage through two periods.

Both sides scored once in the third. Avery dished a breakout pass to Kempainen, who skated up ice on a power-play breakaway before depositing a shot to the right side at 17:13. Violette earned the hat trick with a breakaway tally of her own at 19:52.

Saint Michael's closes out its home schedule with a pair of contests next weekend, beginning with nationally-ranked Castleton University on Friday at 7 p.m. Castleton is eighth in the latest D3hockey.com national poll.