SOUTH BURLINGTON, Vt. - The Saint Michael's College women's ice hockey team broke out of a tie game with six unanswered third-period goals to down Nichols College, 8-2, on Saturday during New England Hockey Conference (NEHC) play in Cairns Arena. The Purple Knights, winners of three of their past four contests, improved to 3-15 overall and 3-8 in the league, while the Bison are 0-18-1 and 0-11.

The six third-period goals were one short of a program mark for a period, while first-year Arianna Boscia (Cranston, R.I./La Salle Academy) tied a school record with four assists, becoming the first defenseman ever to record the feat. Only three other Purple Knights had ever registered four helpers, with Jess Tourville '09 the last to do so, on Nov. 16, 2007.

Senior Athena Akiki (Allendale, N.J./New Jersey Rockets) scored twice in the Purple Knights' sixth straight win over the Bison, classmate Tori Hubbard (Saint Albans, Vt./BFA-Saint Albans) notched a goal and two assists, and senior Erin Dwyer (Weymouth, Mass./Archbishop Williams) had a goal and an assist. Classmates Carolyn Avery (Lexington, Mass./Lexington) and Sarah Bagley (Concord, Mass./Concord-Carlisle) and sophomores Christiana Akiki (Allendale, N.J./New Jersey Rockets) and Madison Nichols (Gilford, N.H./Tilton School) scored once, with Christiana Akiki and Nichols netting the first goals of their careers.

Avery was 8-of-13 on faceoffs, and junior Kaitlyn Wurzer (Lee, N.H./Berwick Academy) went 8-for-10 while adding two assists. First-year Alissa Sullivan (Hingham, Mass./Hingham) dished off three helpers, and senior Abby Burke (Bedford, Mass./The Rivers School) made 22 saves, tying Erin Stevens '13 for third in program history in career wins (10) while pushing her career saves figure to 1,400, edging past classmate Tina Frasca (Norwood, Mass./Tabor Academy) to take over sixth in school annals. She is the sixth goalie to reach 1,400 stops.

Junior Emily Barden and sophomore Callie Jackson scored for Nichols, while classmate Cassandra Goyette made 27 saves in the opening 52:32.

The Purple Knights held a 13-2 advantage in shots during the opening period, but the teams headed into the locker room knotted at one. Dwyer's tip-in try from low in the left circle was stopped at 11:15, and Wurzer beat her defender during a 1-on-1 to skate alone with Goyette around 13:10, but her try to go high was knocked over the net. The teams broke through with power-play goals in the final 3:27. Boscia's shot from the slot was kicked away into the left circle before Akiki sent the rebound into a vacated net at 16:33. However, Barden knotted the game in similar fashion at 18:51, with the rebound of a blocked shot from the slot landing at the bottom of the right circle, where Barden sent home the tying tally after a failed clear by a Purple Knight skater.

During a 2-on-1 rush deep into the Nichols end at 6:16 of the second frame, Athena Akiki's backhanded shot toward the left post was covered by Goyette's right pad as Dwyer crashed the post. The Purple Knights took the lead with 7:05 gone, as Sullivan took a shot from the low right circle that redirected off of her teammate Nichols into the back of the net during a delayed penalty. Soon thereafter, the Bison tied the game, as sophomore Mikayla Castro's shot was stopped by Burke, but Jackson found the rebound at close range and sent in the equalizer at 8:56. Burke made a nice save off of Jackson's go-ahead bid at 13:30, turning aside a quick wrister from up close.

Burke had another standout stop 1:37 into the third, quickly coming across the crease to smother senior Samantha DiReda's shot, and Hubbard netted the winner at 2:24, finding the left side of the net from the hash marks. Just 3:15 later, Boscia's slapper through traffic from the left circle rung the post, but Avery knocked home the rebound while getting knocked to the ice. Dwyer's insurance tally at 10:14 kicked off a stretch of three goals in a matter of 4:38, as Bagley followed by having an initial shot stopped before whacking in the rebound at 12:32. Athena Akiki potted a hard shot from the right circle with 14:52 gone during a power play, and sister Christiana Akiki's slapper from the left circle hit the net during another power play with 50 seconds to go.

The Purple Knights close a four-game homestand with their final two contests at Cairns Arena this season next weekend, first taking on Manhattanville College on Friday at 7 p.m.