Rutland, VT - On the grand opening of Spartan Arena, the Castleton State College men's ice hockey team opened up its 2009-10 regular season losing to Saint Anselm, 4-3, in Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference (ECAC) East Men's action in front of 1,250 fans on Friday night.

Saint Anselm improves to 1-0-0 overall (1-0-0 ECAC East). The Spartans fall to 0-1-0 overall and 0-1-0 in ECAC East play.

After a defensive battle in the first period, Lindsay Gullett (Wawanesa, Man.) opened the scoring for Castleton with a shorthanded goal one minute and two seconds into the period.

Gullett's initial shot on Saint Anselm goaltender Alex Wyse (Amherst, NY) was stuffed with a right-pad save, but Gullet stuck with the play and banged home his own rebound in the crease for a 1-0 lead.

The Hawks tied the contest up at the 4:20 mark of the period with a goal from freshman Mike Richard (Derry, NH). Richard, from about five feet out, sniped the puck past Spartans' goaltender Seth McNary (Woburn, MA) into the top left corner of the net.

Two minutes and 48 seconds later, Saint Anselm broke away with the lead. On a penalty kill situation, Ryan Butler (Arlington, MA) sped past the defense on a breakaway and went forehand-to-backhand shifting McNary. Then, Butler lifted the puck into the net scoring over McNary's stick-side shoulder for a 2-1 advantage.

McNary kept the Spartans from facing a two-goal deficit at 8:04 of the period robbing Tucker Mullin (Andover, MA) with a left-pad save. Mullin, on a clean breakaway, stick-handled left-to-right but McNary stuffed his pad along the left post keeping the score 2-1.

Castleton tied the game at 2-2 at 10:04 on a nicely orchestrated power play goal. From the right face-off circle, Josh Harris (Torrance, CA) made a crisp pass to teammate Chase Laukuf (Bedford, TX) who fired a slapshot on net. Stuart Stefan (Delhi, Ont.) capitalized on the rebound stuffing the puck behind Wyse making it 2-2.

The tie in score for Castleton was short-lived as Mullin (Andover, MA) dialed home a rebound, on a penalty kill, off of a shot from teammate Paul Snell (Groton, MA) past McNary giving the Hawks a 3-2 lead.

Defensman Nick Rossi (Smithtown, NY) padded the lead for the Hawks at 5:45 on an assist from Richard.

Castleton answered back at 6:52 on a Kirk Bolduc (Lewiston, ME) goal but the rally fell short as the Spartans were unable to tie the game up with McNary pulled with under a minute left to go in the game.

McNary finished with 30 saves while Wyse collected 24.

Castleton returns to action tomorrow afternoon with the Spartans playing host to New England College at 4:00 p.m. in ECAC East Conference action.  The Seahawks travel to Skidmore for a 4:00 p.m. contest.