SOUTH BURLINGTON, Vt. – The Saint Michael's College men's ice hockey team fell in a New England Hockey Conference (NEHC) contest against Skidmore College, 4-2, on Friday at Cairns Arena. The Purple Knights fell to 7-11-2 overall and 4-9-1 in the NEHC with the loss, and the Thoroughbreds improved to 8-10-2 and 7-5-1 with the win.

Senior Anthony Maiuri (Boxford, Mass./New Hampton School) and sophomore Colin Biebel (Roxborough Park, Colo./Walpole Express) scored a goal apiece for the Purple Knights, while sophomore Chris Johnson (Duxbury, Mass./Pomfret School) made 34 saves before first-year Tim Decker (Liverpool, N.Y./Canterbury School) made one stop in 9:38 of relief action to end the third period. Johnson's 30 saves pushed his career total to 1,276, which is just four shy of passing Andy Joy '05 for eighth in program history. Johnson also moved his season saves total to 651, which moved him past Chris Yurco '01 for 10th in program history.

For the Thoroughbreds, senior Anthony Bird, junior Luke Alletzhauser, sophomore Corey Morgan and first-year Sam Loizeaux all tallied a goal each, while senior Marc Cibelli added two assists. First-year Matt Wolf went 8-for-13 on faceoffs and classmate Brandon Kasel made 22 saves in the win.

Skidmore opened the scoring when senior Sam Bloom found Loizeaux open for a shot and score at 4:32. The Purple Knights successfully killed one penalty and Johnson finished the period with eight saves, as the first intermission came with Skidmore leading 1-0.

At 4:47 in the second, Bird fired a shot through a screen by first-year Andrew Popp that snuck past Johnson and in. Saint Michael's could not convert on a power play opportunity in the middle of the period, and Morgan made it 3-0 with a high shot from the point at 13:09. The Purple Knights converted on their second power play opportunity in the second, as Lothian found Dickman in the neutral zone, and the senior gained the blue line before sliding a lead pass to Biebel who snapped a shot through Kasel's five-hole at 18:33.

A little over halfway through a back and forth third period, Alletzhauser was hit with lead pass that gave him a chance on Johnson all alone, and the junior finished with a hard shot past the goalies blocker side at 10:22. Two minutes later the Purple Knights had the Thoroughbreds pinned in their defensive zone with an effective forecheck, and senior Connor Mitchell (New Milford, Conn./Kent School) found sophomore Jack Ouellette (Arlington, Mass./Dexter School) open at the point before he sent a shot on goal that Maiuri tipped up and under the cross-bar, making the score 4-2 at 13:40. The Purple Knights fired one more shot at Kasel, but were unable to cut into Skidmore's lead before the clock hit zeros.

Up next for the Purple Knights is a home contest against NEHC foe and in-state rival Castleton University on Saturday at 4 p.m.