GORHAM, Maine -- Freshman A.J. Pieprzak (Barrie, Ontario) scored three times to lead the Saint Michael's College Purple Knights past the University of Southern Maine Huskies, 5-3, in an ECAC Men's East game Friday evening at the USM Ice Arena.

            The win levels the Purple Knights overall record a 1-1-0.  The game was the Knights league opener.  The Huskies, playing in their home opener, dropped their second straight game to slip to 1-2-0 overall and in conference play.

            Pieprzak tied the game in the first period with his first goal, set up by classmate Will Cote (Quebec City, Quebec) and junior Justin Castagna (Los Alamitos, Calif.).  He scored what proved to be the game-winning goal in the latter stages of the second period, and recorded his hat trick goal in the third period less than a minute after the Knights had killed off a 5-on-3 situation.

            Castagna and junior Petr Soustal (Unicov, Czech Republic) potted the Knights other goals.  Cote, junior Morgan Bell (Revelstoke, B.C.) and sophomore Sam Torney (Shelburne, Vt.) each recorded two assists.  Junior goalie Mike Dizgun (Kirkland, Quebec) stopped 22 shots for his first win of the season.

            Freshmen Sam Guimond (Portland, Maine), Stephen Gallo (Barnstead, N.H.) and Ryan Seward (Port Jefferson, N.Y.) had the Southern Maine goals.  Junior Jon Grandinetti (Ottawa, Ontario) picked up an assist on all three goals.  Sophomore Braely Torris (Eckville, Alberta) and senior Mason St. Hilaire (Saco, Maine) split the goaltending duties for the Huskies.  Torris stopped 18 shots over the first two periods while St. Hilaire registered seven saves in the third period.

            Guimond's first career goal six seconds into a power play gave the Huskies a 1-0 lead at 4:56.  Pieprzak would equalize for the Knights nine minutes later.

            Gallo would get his first career goal at 3:05 of the second period when his centering pass deflected in off a Saint Michael's defenseman.  Castagna tallied the first of three consecutive Saint Michael's power-play goals at 7:33 to tie the game.  Soustal's power-play marker at 13:10 gave St. Mike's the lead for good, and Pieprzak tallied the third extra-man goal at 16:13.

            Seward pulled the Huskies within one with his second goal of the season at 6:44.  The Huskies had a golden opportunity to tie the game having a 5-on-3 advantage for 45 seconds, but could not get the puck past Dizgun.  Pieprzak iced the game going in on a breakaway and beating St. Hilaire with 6:20 to play.

            Southern Maine returns to action on Saturday (4:00 p.m.) hosting Norwich University.  Saint Michael's looks to make it two in a row against the University of New England on Saturday (4:00 p.m.).

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