Ravens return to Northeast-10 Championship after one-year hiatus

WINCHENDON, Mass. (February 5, 2013) – Senior forward Michael Carr (South Boston, Mass.) scored twice in an electric first period which set the tone on his way to a school-record four-goal night on Tuesday to lead the Franklin Pierce University men's ice hockey team to a 5-2 win over Saint Michael's in Northeast-10 Conference play at Jason Ritchie Ice Arena. Graduate student forward Anthony Chighisola (Whitman, Mass.) assisted on three of Carr's four goals, as the Ravens clinched a berth in the Northeast-10 Conference Championship. Freshman forward Nick Potter scored the first two goals of his career in defeat for Saint Michael's.

With the win, Franklin Pierce improves to 6-10-3 (4-4-1 Northeast-10), while Saint Michael's falls to 7-13-0 (2-2-0 Northeast-10). It marks the first win for Franklin Pierce over Saint Michael's in program history. With two more Northeast-10 games left, both against Southern New Hampshire, the Ravens can still finish in the top two spots and host the semifinal round of the Northeast-10 Championship. A top-two finish becomes exceedingly more likely if Franklin Pierce defeats SNHU twice to take the two points from the series with the Penmen.

Carr becomes the first player in program history to score four goals in a single game, and notches the team's first hat trick since his other career triple, on Jan. 6, 2012 against SUNY Geneseo. Carr becomes the fourth player in program annals to tally multiple hat tricks in a career, joining Chighisola, Joe Fields and Brian DelSavio. Fields is, thus far, the only Raven to ever notch three career hat tricks.

Chighisola dished out three assists for the fourth time in his career, with the other three coming on Dec. 1, 2010 against SNHU; Nov. 24, 2009 at Western New England; and Jan. 17, 2009 at Curry. He is the first Raven with four career three-assist games, and had been the only to do so three times in a career as well. Others who have had multiple three-assist outings are Fields and Phil LaBreck. The school record is four assists in a game, held by three players, including LaBreck. Prior to Tuesday, the last game of three or more assists came from Carr on Jan. 29, 2011 against Stonehill.

Chighisola's three assists move him to 85 career points (39-46-85), matching senior forward Roscoe Sweeney (Falmouth, Mass.) (35-50-85) for second in program history. Both players sit one point behind Fields' school-record 86 points (37-49-86) and find themselves in a race to the finish line with each other to leave Franklin Pierce as the program's all-time leading scorer. Currently, Chighisola has the school's all-time goal-scoring record, while Sweeney has the most assists in program annals. Each passed Fields at the top of their respective categories this season.

The Ravens came out for the first period like a house afire, striking twice in the opening 11 minutes, both on the power play, and ultimately taking a 3-0 lead into the first intermission. Carr opened the scoring on the man-advantage at 2:43, when he stuffed home the rebound of a Chighisola shot for his seventh goal of the campaign, tying (at the time) for the team lead. On a similar play at 10:55, Carr again collected and deposited the loose puck after a Chighisola power-play shot for his second of the night, while junior defenseman Kyle Craig (Quincy, Mass.) added an assist as well.

The Carr-Chighisola duo let a different line get in on the fun at even strength at 19:16. Freshman forward Doug Usseglio (Waltham, Mass.) and senior forward Dino Federico (Canton, Mass.) teamed to get the puck to senior forward Adam Dallaire (Waltham, Mass.) at the halfboards on the right-wing side. The latter snapped a wrist shot to the top corner from there for his second goal of the season.

Carr coerced the hats out of the stands at the 6:01 mark of the third period with his third goal of the game. Again, he stuffed home a rebound from the goalmouth area, again with Chighisola getting the assist.

Trailing 4-0 through 40 minutes, Saint Michael's appeared to have ideas of a comeback with a pair of power-play goals in the first seven minutes of the final stanza. Just 23 seconds into the frame, Potter jumped on the rebound of a shot from the point by sophomore forward AJ Pieprzak to get the Purple Knights on the board with his first career goal. At the 6:17 mark, Potter made it a multiple-goal game by deflecting home a shot from the left point by sophomore defenseman Mark Higgins.

The Ravens got an important insurance marker 5:13 after the second Potter goal to create the 5-2 final. A defensive breakdown by Saint Michael's left Sweeney at the bottom of the right circle with control of the puck and a two-on-one below the hashmarks. He feathered a pass across the slot to a wide open Carr who banged a one-timer to the back of the gaping net for his record-setting fourth goal of the night.

Senior goaltender Dave O'Brien (Groton, Mass.) made 39 saves to pick up the win (4-4-1) in net for Franklin Pierce. Senior Mike Dizgun started and made just seven saves against 10 shots in the first period and wound up taking the loss (4-7-0) after being pulled during the first intermission. Sophomore Dave Donzanti took over and made 18 saves against 20 shots over the remainder of the game.

The Ravens return to the ice over the weekend when they travel to SUNY Canton for a pair of non-conference games on Feb. 8-9. Opening faceoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. on Friday and 3 p.m. on Saturday. Franklin Pierce next plays at home on Tuesday, Feb. 12 against SNHU at 7 p.m.

For more information on Franklin Pierce Athletics, please visit the official website of Franklin Pierce Athletics (http://athletics.franklinpierce.edu). Also be sure to follow the Ravens through the Department of Athletics' official Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/FranklinPierceRavens), its YouTube channel (http://www.youtube.com/franklinpiercesports) and its Twitter feed (http://twitter.com/FPUathletics). Fans wishing to purchase Franklin Pierce men's ice hockey apparel can do so at the Department of Athletics' brand new online store (http://athletics.franklinpierce.edu/store).