Auburn, ME - The Central Maine Mustangs reached the halfway point of their season tonight and did it in typical fashion before taking a back seat and letting the visitors back in the game.

CM jumped out early with five unanswered goals from Matthew Henderson, Evan Sullivan (2), Joshua Noyes, and Charles Campagna. In the second period the Spartans tallied with goals from Brandon Gay and Joe Cam before the Mustangs regained control with goals from Caleb LaBrie and Sullivans third goal of the game. The Spartans sandwiched second period goals as Colton Leno and Will Palmer scored but CM's Jordy Knoren sniped a screened shot from the point before Palmer scored his second of the game. Matthew Poulin, seemingly added to a comfortable lead put the Mustangs up to end the second period 9 to 4.

After returning to the ice for the third period the game became interesting as the Spartan's decided they wanted to take a stand scoring three unanswered goals from Tyler Cronningshield, Jack Cabanaw, and from Jihlava, Czech Republic David Dvorak. A third period skirmish took place as Castleton's frustration became evident taking a blatant and unprovoked slashing penalty against Caleb LaBrie that resulted in the ejection of CM's Matthew Poulin and a host of penalties and ejections from Castleton University for unsportsmanlike penalties and leaving the bench to enter an altercation.

CM's Kenny Miller in net was strong in the first two periods but was hung-out to dry by his teammates in the third. Castleton's goalie Ben Greenstein with was a bright point for Castleton stopping 47 of 56 shots, many spectacular, Central Maine shots.

"We really should not be allowing seven goals against at home. These types of games, when a home team scores nine goals, gets our guys stirred into a frenzy and everyone thinks they can score and celly. When that happens defense becomes an after thought and it is difficult to rein them back in with our original game plan. We were lucky tonight that we notched a win" said Head Coach Kevin Cady. 

The Mustangs enter the holiday break with eight wins and three losses. "We wanted to have a strong showing against Bates College and Castleton University to close the first half. Eight wins on three losses is a strong first half effort for us" Said Cady.

Photo courtesy of RAM Sports.