FOXBORO, Mass. - The Saint Michael's College men's ice hockey team downed Stonehill College, 6-4, on Tuesday evening at Foxboro Sports Center to clinch a share of the Northeast-10 Conference regular-season crown. The Purple Knights finished their NE10 slate at 4-1, deadlocked with Saint Anselm College for first place, and are 8-12-2 overall, snapping a four-game losing streak during which they lost three games by two goals or fewer. The Skyhawks slipped to 8-12-3 and 5-4.

Saint Michael's, which lost its one NE10 meeting with Saint Anselm and will thus claim the No. 2 seed and a home semifinal contest on Feb. 18 during the NE10 Championship, won a share of the sixth regular-season crown in program history, including its fourth in the NE10. The Purple Knights also tied for the 2007-08 and 2014-15 titles while claiming the 2010-11 championship outright.

Sophomore Patrick Doherty (Tewksbury, Mass./Middlesex Black Bears) registered the first two goals of his college career for Saint Michael's, while classmate Sam D'Antuono (Hingham, Mass./Dexter School) notched a goal and two assists. Senior Anthony Maiuri (Boxford, Mass./New Hampton School) and first-year John Barry (South Boston, Mass./Deerfield Academy) both collected a goal and an assist. Junior Eric Salzillo (Johnston, R.I./Boston Bandits) had three assists while going 10-of-15 on faceoffs

Senior Justin McKenzie (Hawthorne, N.J./Don Bosco Prep) scored once. Sophomore Chris Johnson (Duxbury, Mass./Pomfret School) made 22 saves, moving his career total to 1,298 to pass Andy Joy '05 (1,279) for eighth in program history. Johnson's season figure of 673 is also now good for eighth in program history, besting Phil Fernandez's '87 (656) 1985-86 number.

First-year Jack Hall had a goal and two assists for Stonehill, while junior Tommy Newton and first-year Conor Cassidy also scored while dishing off an assist apiece. Classmate Zachary Frament tallied once, and sophomore Billy Palmer made 37 saves.

Saint Michael's scored five goals in the first period, its highest-scoring stanza since also netting five in the second period against the University of New England on Jan. 26, 2013. It was the Purple Knights' biggest opening frame since potting six versus Castleton University on Nov. 15, 2003.

The Purple Knights fell behind 1:08 into the contest on Cassidy's tally, but they went ahead by the time 4:01 had elapsed. Maiuri found the back of the net with the unassisted equalizer at 3:47 before Doherty recorded his first college goal 14 seconds later. D'Antuono primary-assisted the Doherty marker before senior Danny Divis (Media, Pa./Minnesota Wilderness) dished to Barry on a power play with 9:51 gone. Hall converted a Cassidy assist at 15:04 to trim the deficit to 3-2, but McKenzie reestablished the two-goal advantage 1:09 later, tipping in Barry's blast, and D'Antuono pushed the lead to three with 1:03 left. Salzillo picked up the first assist.

Saint Michael's held a slim 12-11 shots edge during the second period and added to its lead when Doherty recorded his second goal of the contest after 7:52. D'Antuono and Salzillo dished off. However, on a power play that began mid-period, Stonehill cashed in at 12:03 when Newton struck with the man-advantage tally.

Palmer made nine stops in the opening seven minutes of the third to keep his team within striking distance, and Purple Knight skaters responded by blocking four shots in a short span soon thereafter. Almost immediately off of Newton's faceoff win at 9:09, Frament scored five seconds later, drawing Stonehill within 6-4. Palmer vacated the net in favor of an extra skater with 2:45 remaining, but Saint Michael's skaters blocked four straight shots at one point, eventually allowing only two shots to reach Johnson with the Skyhawks holding a 6-on-5 advantage.

The Purple Knights close out their regular season by taking on three straight perennial Division III powers, beginning on Friday at the University of Massachusetts at Boston at 7 p.m. The Beacons advanced to last year's NCAA Division III Final Four.