SOUTH BURLINGTON, Vt.—The sixth-seeded Southern New Hampshire University ice hockey team posted a late comeback but it was not enough as the top-seeded Purple Knights of Saint Michael's College posted a 5-3 win in Northeast-10 Semifinal action.  With the loss, the Penmen see their season come to a close at 6-17-2, while the Purple Knights improve to 11-14-0 and advance to the Northeast-10 Championship on Saturday. 

Saint Michael's would tally the first goal of the game 58 ticks into the first period as as Reave McKinnon and Nick Sheehan found Brady Earle from behind the net to give the Purple Knights the 1-0 advantage.  Saint Michael's would take a two goal lead with 9:54 remaining in the first period on a 5-on-3 advantage for the Purple Knights as McKinnon connected on a pass from Earle.  The Purple Knight 5-on-3 advantage continued for the Purple Knights on Frank O'Connor's (Arlington, Mass.) tripping penalty at the time of the goal, but SNHU goaltender Tyler Holske (Attleboro, Mass.) posted two crucial saves to keep the score unchanged. 

The Purple Knights would extend the lead to 4-0 in the second period, as Rich Rodeschini connected on passes from Josh Geary and Matt Rigtrup with 15:58 remaining in the period to take the 3-0 advantage. 3:12 later, MacKinnon tallied his second goal of the game, assisted by Earle and Sheehan, to take the 4-0 lead. 

On the power-play kill, Tautvydas Shalna (Williston, Vt.) would intercept the puck at mid-ice and pass to Doug Boulanger (Beauport, Quebec) who would carry the puck to the goal and deke Purple Knights' goaltender Mike Dizgun to tally the shorthanded goal at the 12:02 mark.    

Following Neil Adam's (Gardner, Mass.) five-minute facemask penalty and two roughing penalties on the Purple Knights, the Penmen pulled Holske to put the extra skater on the ice for the 5-4 advantage.  After winning the face off, the Penmen controlled the puck for over a minute before Tyler Pascucci (North Reading, Mass.) and O'Connor found Adam Zielger (Medford, Mass.), who pushed the puck into the net to set the score at 4-2.

The Penmen would pull Holske again on the faceoff, allowing the Penmen to again skate an extra player.  With the man-advantage, Bobby Bryant (Nashua, N.H.) and Ziegler found O'Connor who placed the puck past Dizgun with 48 seconds left in regulation to bring the Penmen within one. 

With Holske still on the bench, Michael Jangro would collect the puck off the faceoff and skate towards the empty net, solidifying the 5-3 win for the Purple Knights with 34 seconds remaining in the game.  Rigtrup and Morgan Bell recorded assists on the goal.

Holske took the loss in net for the Penmen, and posted 58 saves in 58:04 in net.  Dizgun earned the win for the Purple Knights and recorded 18 saves.  The Purple Knights finished the evening 2-for-8 on the power play, while the Penmen were 1-for-4 with the man-advantage. 

Saint Michael's will host second-seeded Saint Anselm College at 4:00 p.m. on Saturday, March 5 for the Northeast-10 tournament title.  The Hawks advanced after posting a 3-2 win over fourth-seeded Assumption College.