POTSDAM, N.Y. - The Saint Michael's College women's ice hockey team finished a home-and-home weekend against the State University of New York at Potsdam with a 3-1 loss on Saturday at Maxcy Ice Arena. The Purple Knights are 2-2, while the Bears began the season 2-0.

Senior Katherine O'Brien (East Sandwich, Mass./Tilton School) scored for the Purple and Gold, while classmates Ashley Dineen (Somers, N.Y./Canterbury School) and Amanda Donahoe (Wakefield, Mass./Saint Mary's) lent assists. First-year Maddie Gervais (Glastonbury, Conn./East Catholic) was 7-for-13 on faceoffs, and junior Nicole Talcott (Colchester, Vt./Rice Memorial Prep) made 21 saves.

Seniors Anna-Rose Bertin and Taylor Marcellus and sophomore Lucy Condon all scored for the Bears, while sophomore Alexa Pfeiffer recorded 30 saves, as Saint Michael's held a 31-24 advantage in shots.

Talcott had a pair of stops during a SUNY Potsdam power play that began just 3:05 into the contest, and Pfeiffer countered with two of her own when the Purple Knights started a woman advantage two minutes later. Talcott turned aside three more bids on the Bears' second power-play opportunity, which kicked off at 8:50, before the hosts broke through on Marcellus' unassisted tally at 13:59. Saint Michael's sent four shots on net in a power play that started with 15:29 gone, as the netminder stopped each, but O'Brien found the equalizer just eight seconds after the extra-player chance expired, knotting the game at 17:37.

During a second period in which the Purple Knights held a 14-4 advantage in shots, only the Bears found the back of the net. Talcott helped her team kill another SUNY Potsdam power play with two saves between the end of the first and beginning of the second period, and Bertin hit the post a little more than a minute into the second stanza to keep it 1-1. Saint Michael's was a woman up continuously between 7:09 and 10:54, including 15 seconds of a 5-on-3, but Pfeiffer stopped all six shots the visitors sent her way, and Condon scored at 10:39, with her shorthanded marker eventually standing as the game-winner.

Another Purple Knight power play that began at 11:58 featured two Pfeiffer saves, and senior Kaitlyn Wurzer (Lee, N.H./Berwick Academy) later hit the post with a tying attempt a little before the 15-minute mark to begin a sequence that included two more saves by the Bear goalie. In the third period, Bertin scored 1:53 in for the lone tally in the frame. A pair of SUNY Potsdam penalties during the stanza led to Saint Michael's putting three shots on Pfeiffer that she denied, and she stopped two more shots with Talcott pulled in favor of an extra skater over the final 57 seconds.

The Purple Knights return home next weekend for a two-game set with the College of the Holy Cross, beginning with a Friday contest at 7:05 p.m.