WINCHENDON, MA. (2/17/2023) - After rallying from behind on multiple occasions Friday night, the Franklin Pierce men's hockey team came up just short once again on  home ice, falling to Northeast-10 Conference foe Saint Anselm College, 5-3 at Jason Ritchie Ice Arena.  

With the close loss, the Ravens step back to 10-18-2 (7-10-2 NE10) on the season. The Hawks, now 18-10-3 (12-5-2 NE10), own sole possession of the top-seed in the NE10 standings following the victory, and will seek a chance to clinch home-ice advantage throughout the upcoming NE10 playoffs with another win tomorrow over Franklin Pierce.

St. Anslem peppered Ravens goaltender Kyle Martin (Westford, Mass.) in the opening period, outshooting Franklin Pierce 18-7. The Ravens entered into the game with the top powerplay percentage in the Northeast-10 Conference (23.1%), but failed to capitalize on their first two man-advantage opportunities. To add insult to injury, Saint Anselm would strike first blood with under 2:00 left to go in the opening period on a goal by sophomore defenseman Mark Blaney, both unassisted and shorthanded, to give the visitors a 1-0 lead. 

With the lead in hand entering the second period, the Hawks picked up right where they left off as they continued to pour on the shots early in the period. It took all of 1:49 into the frame before the lead would be pushed to 2-0 by junior forward Liam Lyons, who wired a wrist shot through Martin from the right circle for his seventh goal of the season. Five minutes later, Franklin Pierce would finally break through to cut the deficit in half, thanks to freshman forward Devin Rohrich (Pittsburgh, Pa.) one-timed a shot from the left circle, beating Hawks' goaltender Nick Howard on his 10^th of the season.

To close out the second, freshman Luke Linart made it 3-1 Saint Anselm after corralling a loose puck off a rebound from an initial wrist shot that went wide of the goal, tapping it in past Martin.

To the human eye, there was urgency to the Raven game in the third period as they attempted to find their offensive spark. The effort would eventually pay off when graduate Anthony Nikolopoulos (Burlington, Mass.) got the Raven special teams back on track, scored his seventh goal of the season on a powerplay off to cut the deficit back to one goal, 3-2. However, Saint Anslem would continue to make things difficult as they eventually regained their two-goal lead on Garrett Alberti's third goal of the season, making it 4-2. But as Saint Anselm made things challenging, the Ravens continued to rise to the occasion, as senior forward Jackson Dobek (Natick, Mass.) gave Franklin Pierce some final light with his fourth goal of the season, bringing the score to 4-3 with under 6:00 to play.

With the net empty for the final minute and a half of the period, senior forward Andrew Andary would cap it off after scoring an empty-net goal, securing the victory for the Hawks. 5-3.

Nick Howard claimed his 15th win of the season in net for the Hawks, stopping 14-of-17 shots faced, including a perfect 7-of-7 in the first period. Kyle Martin took the loss for Franklin Pierce, stopping 40-of-44 shots. 

Franklin Pierce will face-off once more against St. Anslem tomorrow afternoon for the regular season finale at the Jason Ritchie Ice Arena, with puck drop at 7:00 p.m. Prior the action, the Ravens will celebrate and honor their graduating seniors.