BOX SCORE

HOOKSETT, N.H. - Brandon Hammermeister (Calgary, ALB) totaled two goals and an assist as Southern New Hampshire University posted a 6-4 Northeast-10 ice hockey victory over Stonehill College at The Ice Den Wednesday night.  The Penmen won their third straight game to improve to 6-1-1 overall and 2-0-0 in NE-10 play, while the Skyhawks, the defending Northeast-10 tournament champions, are now 2-5-1 and 0-1-0 in the league.

The Penmen, who are off to their best start since the 2004-05 season, got a goal and two assists from Josh Goodman (Highland Mills, NY). The hosts also got two assists apiece from Kent Honeyman (Marietta, GA) and John Frey (Westminster, CO).  Ed Montgomery (Colchester, VT), Matt Farley (Halifax, MA) and Ryan DiBartolomeo (Leominster, MA) each had goals for the Penmen.

John Sommers (Manchester, CT) led Stonehill with a pair of goals, while Anthony Zanetti (Ludlow, MA) recorded a pair of assists.

Stonehill took a 1-0 lead just 1:32 into the game when Sommers scored on an assist from Zanetti.  The Penmen would score twice in a 25 second span to take a 2-1 lead.  Montgomery scored at the 3:11 mark before Hammermeister made it 3-1 3:36.   Brian Davis (Foxboro, MA) tied the game with a wrister from the right faceoff circle that snuck inside the far post at 14:31, but SNHU took a 3-2 lead into the first imtermission at 17:02 when Farley converted a feed from Jon Lizzotte (Winslow, ME).

The Penmen made it 4-2 3:14 into the second frame.  Hammermeister blasted a shot off the pipe, but DiBartolomeo collected the rebound and put it home.  Frank Amato (West Springfield, MA) made it a 4-3 game when he scored for the Skyhawks at 7:11, but SNHU would reclaim a two-goal advantage 1:06 later when Hammermeister scored his second goal of the contest.

Sommers would halve SNHU's lead once again with 4:47 remaining in regulation.  The Skyhawks would pull netminder Justin Zegel (Ridgewood, NJ) with 1:04 left and Goodman would add an empty net goal for the Penmen with 10 seconds to go.

Matt Courchsene (Bow, NH) made 33 saves en route to the win for the Penmen as Stonehill outshot SNHU 37-31.  Zegel made 25 saves for the Skyhawks.

Southern New Hampshire is idle until December 28 when it faces Fitchburg State College in the first round of the Codfish Bowl hosted by UMass Boston.  Faceoff is slated for 2:00 pm.  The Penmen will face either the host Beacons or Suffolk University in either the championship or consolation the next day.