MANCHESTER, N.H. (1/31/23) –  Senior forward Jason Ladzinski (Norcross, Ga.) leveled the playing field with 00:48 left in regulation to help the Franklin Pierce men's hockey team force overtime against the host Saint Anselm College Hawks, eventually ending in a 1-1 Northeast-10 stalemate on Tuesday night at Sullivan Arena. 

It is the first draw of the season for the Ravens, who move to 9-14-1 (6-7-1 NE10) overall on the season. Saint Anselm holds steady at 14-9-2 (9-5-2 NE10) following the evening's events.

The first 40 minutes of the game remained scoreless for both teams. In the first period, the Ravens were gifted a late power play opportunity as Saint Anselm's Max Burum took a penalty for delay of game, but were held to just two shots on goal as the Hawks made the successful kill. At the end of the scoreless first stanza, the Ravens held a 13-11 edge in shots. 

Following the first intermission, the Ravens returned to the ice energized and challenged the Saint Anselm defense with five consecutive shots, including a pair of quality chances by Ladzinski and freshman Devin Rohrich (Pittsburgh, Pa.) on partial breakaways.

However, with under five minutes left in the second period, the Ravens ran into some penalty trouble with a pair of late calls, getting their first penalty kill test of the evening. With senior Jackson Dobek (Natick, Mass.) in the box for tripping, Pierce allowed just one shot during the Hawks' man-advantage, successfully killing it off. Despite the effort, Pierce would once again find themselves down a man with under a minute to go on a John Jammers (Geneva, Switzerland) cross-check, and would face two shots prior to the end of the period.

With some power play time still left over from the second period, Saint Anselm took advantage and finally broke the silence. The goal came with just a few seconds left on the man advantage, as defender John Murphy sent a seeing-eye wrist shot from the top of the zone over the glove-side shoulder of netminder Kyle Martin (Westford, Mass.), making it a 1-0 game early in the third. However, it was the end of the third that told the story for Pierce.

With under a minute to play, Ladzinski notched the equalizer after catching a piece of a tippable shot from up high by defenseman Stephen Jacobs (Hingham, Mass.), just enough for the puck to find its way through Hawks goaltender Nick Howard for the 1-1 tie. From there, extra time would be needed to find a winner.

In overtime, Pierce led the shots 4-1, but were unable to find the back of the net during the five minutes of 3-on-3. As a result, both teams would take it as it was left, and skate off with the 1-1 draw.

In a game that was about as evenly matched as they come, both goaltenders were kept busy. Kyle Martin earned the tie for the Ravens after logging 63:30 in the crease, turning aside 32-of-33 shots faced. Saint Anselm's Nick Howard also stood tall for his respective team, stopping 33-of-34 shots. Throughout the evening, both teams saw three power play opportunities each, with Pierce coming up an empty 0-for-3 and Saint Anselm going 1-for-3.

Men's Hockey will continue their New Hampshire road tour with another NE10 matchup, as they open a weekend series against rival Southern New Hampshire on Friday, February 3^rd for a 7:30 p.m. faceoff.