Henniker, NH - The Central Maine Mustangs hockey team came out flying against a fast New England College (1-0) team. Alex Barone buried a puck in the first period shortly followed by a goal from Sean Coleman to extend the lead to 2-0 Mustangs. A NEC goal 7:30 into the opening period cut the lead in half, 2-1 after one period.
"I was extremely impressed with our opening mentality and how we carried over from the Thomas game Friday. It can be tough to sit on a bus for two and a half hours and come out flying like we did, so I was very pleased with that." Coach Matt Poulin stated.
The Mustangs got a little sloppy defensively in the second period and allowed NEC to take a 3-2 lead into the final period.
The final period did not shape out to be in the Mustangs favor. The Pilgrims came out firing on all cylinders and took advantage of broken coverages to jump ahead 5-2 within the first six minutes of the period. Jordin Eurenius and Gunnar Hann added goals in the third period as the Mustangs fell 9-4.
"I thought we played two strong periods overall but we got sloppy in the third period. With a team of New England's caliber, you have to play three full periods of hockey or else they will expose you like they did tonight. They just beat us to pucks, exposed open men, and buried rebounds in front of our net in the third. We have to do a better job of closing the game, which has been one of strong points all year. At the end of the day, we have to continue to work our defensive zone coverage and we have to continue to mark up in coverage. I think this was a good learning game for us and will allow us to go back to the drawing board this week. We took huge steps this weekend and you hope that is only the start." Coach Poulin added.
Charles Campagna, Patrik Pearson, Jacoby Robinson, Jordy Knoren, Dylan Farrell-Reny, and Gunnar Hann all added assists on the night. Joshua Ehiboro had 32 saves on the night and Orion Piston added 4 saves as well in his first action with the team.
The CM Mustangs hockey team takes the ice for three home games this upcoming weekend against St. Joseph's College on Friday (7:00 PM EST), Bates College on Saturday (7:00 PM EST) and Mass Maritime on Sunday (4:00 PM EST).