Manchester, NH-Castleton State College skated to a 2-2 tie with St. Anselm College in both teams' season opener in front of over 1300 fans.

Castleton would strike first in the third period with a goal at 1:24. Brandon Heck took a shorthanded feed from Matthew Link and found room through the five hole of Saint Anselm goalie Jason Rafuse (Napean, Ont.) for the game's opening goal.

The Hawks would get the power-play equalizer just 14 seconds later as Chris O'Brien (Watertown, Mass.) scored his first of the season, with assists going to Brett Smith (Hudson, Mass.) and Brian Dobler (Jericho, N.Y.). Saint Anselm took its first lead of the season at 4:44 as Joe Fernald (Braintree, Mass.) scored on a set up from Andrew Gartman (East Norwich, N.Y.). 
The 6:11 mark of the game saw the two teams battle after the whistle and a host a penalties were handed out to seven different players.

The Spartans would even the contest at 11:32 as Jared Lavender scored to send the game to overtime. Each team had two shots in the extra frame but the game ended deadlocked at 2-2.

Castleton State sophomore goalie Jeff Swanson made 36 saves to earn the game's number-one star, while Rafuse was the second star with 18 saves in the game's 65 minutes. 
With the tie, both teams begin the season 0-0-1 overall and in the ECAC East.