SOUTH BURLINGTON, Vt. - Three players scored as the Saint Michael's College men's ice hockey team defeated Franklin Pierce University, 3-1, on Friday evening during Northeast-10 Conference play at Cairns Arena.
 
RECORDS

• Saint Michael's (12-8-2, 8-5 NE10), Franklin Pierce (0-19-1, 0-13 NE10)

SAINT MICHAEL'S LEADERS

• Senior Case Kantgias (Bloomfield Hills, Mich./Northern Colorado Eagles), 1 goal
• Senior Jack Macdonald (Baraboo, Wis./Seahawks Hockey Club), 1 goal
• Junior Quinn McCarthy (Melrose, Mass./Holderness School), 1 goal
• First-year Evan Plunkett (Charlotte, N.C./Holderness School), 21 saves
• Sophomore Ty Bloom (Helena, Mont./Helena Bighorns), 12-for-19 faceoffs
• Junior Jake Lincourt (Smithfield, R.I./Walpole Express), 11-for-16 faceoffs

OPPONENT LEADERS

• First-year Mario Paganini, 1 goal
• Sophomore Riley Mastowski, 35 saves

GAME FACTS

• Saint Michael's leapfrogged Assumption University and Southern New Hampshire University, both of which lost on Friday, to take over second place in the NE10, moving within six points of Saint Anselm College.
• All four goals were of the special-teams variety, with three coming on the power play and another shorthanded.
• After being outshot in the first period, 9-8, the Purple Knights held an 18-4 second-period lead en route to a 38-22 advantage for the game.
• Saint Michael's turned in a 37-28 lead in faceoff wins, including 31-18 over the final two frames.
• With his 19th career power-play goal, Kantgias tied Chris Healey '09 for sixth in program history.

THE ACTION

• Macdonald scored the only goal of the first period, chasing down a giveaway at the far blue line before beating Mastowski over his blocker for a shorthanded goal at 10:50.
• Plunkett kept his blocker to the ice to turn away first-year Phillip Parker's point-blank chance at 15:38.
• Kantgias made it 2-0 at 3:44 of the second period by blasting a slap shot from the left circle for a power-play goal. Bloom and senior David Ciancio (Scituate, R.I./Seahawks Hockey Club) assisted.
• McCarthy added to the lead with a power-play strike at 3:50 of the third period, turning in the slot after taking first-year Roman Winicki's (Setauket, N.Y./Philadelphia Hockey Club) feed and tucking a shot inside the right post. Senior Moseley Schwartz (Philadelphia, Pa./Phillips Academy) added the secondary assist.
• Plunkett kept his shutout intact by robbing Paganini of an open net with his left pad at 14:14 amid a four-save flurry during a harried 21-second stretch.
• Paganini snapped home a power-play goal from the slot with 43.7 seconds left in regulation to spoil Plunkett's bid for his fifth shutout.
• Plunkett rebounded by denying junior Austin Pick's point-blank bid with 12.3 ticks to go with Mastowski pulled for an extra skater to hold off the Ravens' comeback bid.

NEXT SAINT MICHAEL'S GAME

• Saturday vs. Franklin Pierce, 3 p.m.