MANCHESTER, N.H. - Despite junior Carissa Mudrak's (Duluth, Minn./Gentry Academy) career-high 58 saves, including 16 in overtime, the seventh-seeded Saint Michael's College women's ice hockey team's postseason run came to an end with a 3-2 loss to No. 2 Saint Anselm College in the deciding third game of their New England Women's Hockey Alliance (NEWHA) Championship first-round series on Sunday in Sullivan Arena.

RECORDS

• Saint Michael's (2-26-4), Saint Anselm (17-16-4)

SAINT MICHAEL'S LEADERS

• Mudrak, 58 saves (career high)
• Junior Mikaela Langbacka (Lorton, Va./Washington Pride), 1 goal
• Sophomore Angelina Ruiz (Independence, Minn./Gentry Academy), 1 goal
• Senior Jenna Harrison (Kitchener, Ontario/Wellesley), 1 assist, 13-for-29 faceoffs
• Senior Maeghan Kennard (Hamlin, N.Y./Niagara Jr. Purple Eagles), 1 assist, 9-for-24 faceoffs
• Junior Mary Leys (Newport, R.I./Saint George's School), 1 assist
• Sophomore Gaby Tribelli (Montreal, Quebec/Dawson College), 1 assist, 3 blocks
• Senior Sophia Burns (Syracuse, N.Y./Syracuse Nationals), 14-for-25 faceoffs
• Junior Darby Rich (Melrose, Mass./Tilton School), 4 blocks
• Junior Jace Zapata (Brea, Calif./Gentry Academy), 3 blocks

OPPONENT LEADERS

• Junior Maddy McCaffery, 1 goal, 1 assist, 21-for-29 faceoffs
• Senior Gabrielle Huson, 1 goal
• Sophomore Audrey Jackson, 1 goal
• Senior Allie Kelley, 25 saves

GAME FACTS

• Seven of the Purple Knights' final nine games this season were decided by two goals or less, including six being determined by one or fewer, with four extending to overtime. In all, Saint Michael's played 19 games decided by two goals or less this season.
• The Purple Knights finished 1-for-3 on the power play on Sunday, scoring five of their 10 power-play goals this season in the seven meetings with Saint Anselm.
• After entering the weekend series with one win this season, no wins ever against Saint Anselm, and three all-time postseason victories to their credit, the Purple Knights downed the Hawks, 4-3, in Friday's opener, lost on Saturday, 8-0, and came within one goal of clinching the series upset on Sunday.
• While extending her school record to 110 career games, Harrison tallied her 28th career assist, finishing seventh in program annals.
• Mudrak set a school record with a .933 save percentage this season, shattering Tina Frasca's '17 eight-year-old mark (.926). Her 937 saves are good for second, behind Vika Simons' '20 1,028 stops in 2019-20, and Mudrak's 3.17 goals-against average was third, behind Frasca's pair of 2.67 seasons.

THE ACTION

• The Purple Knights were outshot during the first period, 17-7, but Langbacka tallied the lone goal. During a power play in the final five minutes, she skated out of the right corner above the right circle, spun and picked the far corner of the net with 15:02 gone. Kennard and Leys assisted.
• McCaffery found the equalizer at 4:30 of the second stanza, collecting a rebound off of a Mudrak save and beating the netminder to her blocker corner from the edge of the left circle.
• The Purple Knights went back ahead with 9:20 gone, as Harrison's backhanded pass from behind the net found the slot and a crashing Ruiz, who picked Kelley's glove corner. Tribelli added the secondary helper.
• In the waning minutes of regulation, Saint Anselm again tied the game, as first-year Sydney Merritt swept a loose puck from the right post cross-crease to Huson, who buried a power-play goal with Mudrak at the far post.
• Mudrak came up big late to ensure the extra session, including gloving down junior Claire Weber's shot from the slot and covering at 17:20 before holding the left post with her paddle and graduate student Kelly Golini bearing down at 18:18.
• Mudrak was fantastic in overtime, denying junior Natalie Tulchinsky's bid in the slot at 3:19 after a Purple Knight giveaway, turning away junior Brinna Martin's clean look from the slot at 8:29, stopping Tulchinsky during a 3-on-1 rush at 9:00, and making a left pad save of Golini's one-timer at 9:48. Senior Kenadie Cooper also rung the right post from the blue line with 4:05 gone before Mudrak paddled away a loose puck.
• In between, Harrison countered in the other direction, sending a backhanded shot from up close off of Kelley's left pad at 7:40.
• Two more spectacular saves by Mudrak kept the game tied, first rejecting Golini with her blocker at 10:14 before occupying the top of the crease and forcing Weber into pushing a shot wide of the right post at 11:14.
• Leys was tripped while putting a breakaway bid at 13:14 off of Kelley's right pad, and Langbacka's spin and shot from the right circle at 15:10 was the lone Saint Michael's shot on the ensuing power play.
• Late in the stanza, Mudrak made a save of sophomore Heather McAvoy's shot with her paddle, but later in the possession, a frenzied scramble around the net ended with Jackson banking a shot from below the goal line off of the netminder, who was working to get back on her feet, with 17:58 gone.