SOUTH BURLINGTON, Vt. - Junior Marshall Murphy (Little Canada, Minn./Northern Colorado Eagles) made 41 saves for his first college shutout, and four Saint Michael's College men's ice hockey players scored in a 4-0 victory over first-place Assumption University on Friday evening in Cairns Arena. The Purple Knights clinched a home Northeast-10 Conference Championship game with the victory.

RECORDS

• Saint Michael's (10-11-1, 9-7-1 NE10), Assumption (15-11-1, 11-5-1 NE10)

SAINT MICHAEL'S LEADERS

• Murphy, 41 saves
• Senior Sam Johnson (Freeport, Maine/Walpole Express), 1 goal, 1 assist, 3 blocks, +3
• Senior Owen Rudicus (Duxbury, Mass./Tabor Academy), 1 goal, 1 assist, +3
• Sophomore Brennan McFarland (Greeley, Colo./Northern Colorado Eagles), 2 assists
• Senior Matt Schreiner (Falmouth, Mass./Walpole Express), 1 goal, 12-for-22 faceoffs
• Junior Zach Taylor (Hanover, Mass./South Shore Kings), 1 goal
• First-year Ashton Allain (Brentwood, Tenn./Walpole Express), 3 blocks
• First-year Jake Lincourt (Smithfield, R.I./Walpole Express), 8-for-11 faceoffs
• Sophomore Jack Macdonald (Baraboo, Wis./Seahawks Hockey Club), 8-for-13 faceoffs

OPPONENT LEADERS

• Graduate student Drew Benedict, 28 saves

GAME FACTS

• Saint Michael's pushed its point total to 29 while remaining third in the NE10 standings. Assumption and Saint Anselm College are deadlocked for first with 34 points in a league that awards three points for a win, one for a tie, and one for an overtime loss.
• The Purple Knights improved to 9-0 this season when scoring at least four goals.
• The last eight meetings between the teams at Cairns Arena had been decided by two goals or less. Friday's game was the largest win for either team on the Purple Knights' home ice since a 6-0 Saint Michael's triumph on Dec. 30, 2006.
• After Assumption took five straight meetings, the Purple and Gold has won the past two.
• Saint Michael's handed Assumption its worst loss to a non-Division I team this winter.

THE ACTION

• Murphy made 12 stops during a scoreless first period, when the Purple Knights were doubled up in shots.
• Rudicus broke through with the game-winner at 1:17 of the second period, one-timing home McFarland's pass from behind the net.
• Murphy made a blocker save of sophomore Sean Corliss' bid from the right circle around the 14-minute mark, and the Purple Knights made it 2-0 soon thereafter. In a matter of 12 seconds, Schreiner won a faceoff in front of Murphy, all five Saint Michael's skaters touched the puck, and Schreiner and McFarland worked a give-and-go that ended with Schreiner scoring under pressure from the slot at 14:25.
• Taylor buried a slapshot from the right circle to Benedict's blocker corner at 14:33 of the third period.
• Johnson was credited with an empty-net goal 3:27 later after forcing a stalemate with a Greyhound along the end boards, a sequence that ended with an Assumption player leaving the fray with the puck but whipping it along the boards and into his own net at the other end.

NEXT SAINT MICHAEL'S GAME

• Saturday vs. Assumption, 4 p.m.
• The Purple Knights will hold a postgame Senior Day ceremony.