Southern Maine Falls to St. Michael's in OT 2-1

            GORHAM, Maine -- Sophomore Sam D'Antuono (Hingham, Mass.) scored his fifth goal of the season at 1:12 of overtime to give the visiting Saint Michael's College Purple Knights a 2-1 victory over the University of Southern Maine Huskies in a New England Hockey Conference game Friday evening at the USM Ice Arena.

            The win improved the Purple Knights' overall record to 5-8-2 and 3-6-1 in NEHC play, and gave them a split of the teams home-and-home season series.  The Huskies, who knocked off SMC in November, dropped their second straight to slide to 6-9-0 overall and 3-7-0 in the league.

            In the extra session, D'Antuono took a pass from junior Nathan Force (Essex, Vt.) in the Huskies' defensive zone, skated into the right-wing circle and wristed a 25-foot shot over the shoulder of USM rookie goalie Paul Léger (Blainville, Quebec) for the game winner.  Junior Eric Salzillo (Johnston, R.I.) picked up the second assist.

            Saint Michael's sophomore goalie Chris Johnson (Duxbury, Mass.) got the visitors into the five-minute overtime period stopping 17 USM shots in the third period to preserve a 1-1 tie.  Johnson finished the game with 41 saves earning his fifth win of the year.

            After a scoreless first period, Saint Michael's took a 1-0 lead midway through the second period on a fluke goal from senior Justin McKenzie (Hawthorne, N.J.).  McKenzie, moving toward the left-wing corner below the goal line, flipped a centering pass that struck Léger and bounced inside the nearside post.

            With time winding down in the period, the Huskies got the equalizer at 17:01 as freshman Jordan Hall (Anchorage, Alaska) scored his first goal of the campaign with a shot up over Johnson's shoulder.  Hall took a long bank pass from senior Ty Zampitella (Ipswich, Mass.), deked around a SMC defender and beat Johnson from the right-wing circle.  Léger also earned an assist on the play.

            Southern Maine finished with a 42-25 edge in shots on goal in the game.  Neither team scored with the man advantage as SMC was 0 for 5 and USM was 0 for 2 on the power play.  Léger recorded 23 saves.

            The Huskies are back in action tomorrow afternoon (4:00 p.m.) when they host nationally-ranked Norwich University.  The Purple Knights look to make it two in a row on Saturday (7:30 p.m.) when they travel to Daniel Webster College. 

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