SOUTH BURLINGTON, Vt. - The Saint Michael's College men's ice hockey team suffered its first loss of the season on Friday evening, falling by a 5-2 count to Northeast-10 Conference foe Southern New Hampshire University in Cairns Arena.
 
RECORDS

• Saint Michael's (4-1, 2-1 NE10), Southern New Hampshire (2-3, 1-2 NE10)

SAINT MICHAEL'S LEADERS

• Junior Matti Tauriainen (Grapevine, Texas/Valley Jr. Warriors), 1 goal
• First-year Sj LeComte (Port Monmouth, N.J./Wisconsin Rapids Riverkings), 1 goal
• Junior Cole Manahan (Hermantown, Minn./Vernal Oilers), 25 saves

OPPONENT LEADERS

• First-year Ryan Kayser, 1 goal, 1 assist
• Junior Tyler Murray, 1 goal
• Junior Kurt Watson, 1 goal
• Sophomore Stone Devlin, 1 goal
• Sophomore Austin Hirschberger, 1 goal
• Sophomore Collin Berke, 32 saves

GAME FACTS

• The Purple Knights started 4-0 for the second straight season but were denied their first 5-0 start.
• Saint Michael's held a 34-30 advantage in shots.
• Tauriainen scored for the third straight game after netting one goal in his first 41 career games.

THE ACTION

• Murray put the Penmen ahead at 12:01 of the first period, tipping home sophomore Coleman Nee's shot from the right point.
• Sophomore Hans Forselius (Guilford, Conn./Seahawks Hockey Club) skated onto a one-timer in the slot that was stopped at 15:32.
• Kayser doubled the lead with 18:47 gone during a power play, finding the net from the right point.
• LeComte halved the deficit 2:45 into the second period, backhanding a shot from the right circle after receiving Forselius' cross-ice pass.
• Junior Kyle Lee (Buffalo, N.Y./Finlandia) rung the right post from the mid-slot a little more than two minutes later.
• Hirschberger reestablished the two-goal edge at 6:41, putting in a second effort from out front.
• Only 28 seconds later, Tauriainen added another goal, pouncing on the rebound of first-year Cole Douglas' (Pittsburgh, Pa./Shady Side Academy) blocked shot to again make it a one-goal game.
• Manahan made an extended glove save of Kayser's power-play blast from the slot at 3:08 of the third period.
• Watson ended the man advantage at 4:01 by picking the far corner from deep in the left circle, pushing the lead to 4-2.
• Sophomore Ty Bloom (Helena, Mont./Helena Bighorns) was denied by Berke's stick save from the slot during a power play at 14:13 as the best chance during a power play stemming from a Penman major penalty but interrupted by a Saint Michael's minor.
• With Manahan on the bench for an extra attacker, senior David Ciancio's (Scituate, R.I./Seahawks Hockey Club) wrist shot from along the goal line was stopped with 51 seconds left, and Devlin picked up the rebound before flipping a final shot on the empty net with 45 seconds to go.

NEXT SAINT MICHAEL'S GAME

• Saturday vs. Southern New Hampshire, 3 p.m.
• The Purple Knights will honor their national-champion 1998-99 team with an on-ice ceremony at 2:45 p.m.