Andrew Webb  had two assists in the Skyhawks 7-4 win over St. Anselm

Skyhawks Blitz No. 1 Seed St. Anselm 7-4

Boxscore

Manchester, N.H. - The six seed Stonehill Skyhawks got on the board before the Hawks knew what hit them and upset the conference's number one ranked team 7-4 at Sullivan Arena on Wednesday night to punch their ticket to the conference championship game on Saturday.

Unlike last week's matchup between the two, it was Stonehill who got on the board first, scoring on just their second shot of the period. Senior defenseman James Florentino (West Roxbury, Mass.) took a pass from Pete Roundy (Simsbury, Conn.) and fired it past Kevin Fairweather for the 1-0 lead just three and a half minutes into the game.

The Skyhawks continued to put pressure on St. Anselm and upped their lead to two at the 6:19 mark. Freshman Andrew Diozzi (Belmont, Mass.) scored for the second straight game, this one on a two-on-one opportunity against Fairweather.

The Hawks finally got past Stonehill sophomore Mike Manna (Framingham, Mass.) as Tom Kerwin redirected a blue line shot from Brian Hartigan to cut the lead in half with eight minutes left in the period.

Roundy continued his hot tournament play, scoring at the 3:54 mark off an Andrew Webb (Simsbury, Conn.) assist and then following it up less than 30 seconds later with his second tally of the evening to give the Skyhawks a 4-1 cushion.

St. Anselm wouldn't give up without a fight, dropping the lead to two with just under nine minutes left in the second on Hartigan's second goal of the season.  However, Stonehill once again pumped the lead up to three as Zachary Cantin (Saugus, Mass.) went top shelf on Pat Gallagher, who had replaced Fairweather after Roundy's second goal.

The final 20 minutes saw a flurry of action, as the Hawks made an attempt at a comeback. Hartigan scored on St. Anselm's 11^th shot of the period, at the 14:19 mark to cut the lead to 5-3.

The Hawks pulled Gallagher three minutes later and were rewarded when Ryan Butler scored to make it a one goal game with just under two minutes remaining.

Any chance at tying it up ended as Florentino scored just six second into a power play for his second goal and a 6-4 lead.  Freshman Pat Greene (Weymouth, Mass.) added an empty netter with 13 seconds left for the 7-4 win.

Manna made 37 stops between the pipes for the Skyhawks, while the combination of Fairweather and Gallagher stopped 14 and 15 shots respectively.

Florentino had his second straight multi point game with two goals, as did Diozzi, who had a goal and assist.  Roundy led Stonehill in scoring with two goals and an assist as they advanced to the Northeast-10 Championship for the second time in three years.

Coach Garry Hebert was pleased with his team's win, as they improved to 10-5-1 after their 0-7 start to the season. "We've worked really hard and it so satisfying to watch our destiny being fulfilled before our eyes."

The Skyhawks will travel to Burlington, Vermont on Saturday for the championship to take on a St. Michael's squad which beat Stonehill 5-2 a week and a half ago.  It will be the Skyhawks second career appearence in the title contest, in their first they beat St. Anselm to win the 2007 NE-10 Championship.  Game time is set for 7:00 p.m.