Worcester, Mass. – Despite a strong start and a furious finish, a sleepy second period would be the undoing of the Central Maine Community College hockey team on Sunday afternoon as they fell to Worcester Polytechnic Institute by a final count of 7-3 at the Worcester Ice Center on Sunday afternoon. The loss wrapped up an up-and-down weekend for the Mustangs, who defeated the University of New England on the road the night before.
The Mustangs started fast, with captain Shawn Sullivan taking a Warren Karlberg feed and firing a wrist shot past Engineers goalkeeper James van Tronk just 6:20 into the contest. Brock Geoffroy would add an assist on the play.
The lead would not last long, however. Worcester Polytechnic would respond just 1:04 later, with Lucio Nicolletti claiming credit for an equalizer that appeared to redirect of a Central Maine defender and past goaltender Ben Feldman, who was making his second start of the year. The game would remain on level terms until the 16:29 mark of the first period when Rich Steinberg found Thass Seppenwolde darting to the back post to finish a crisp 3-on-2 rush and give the hosts a one goal edge heading into the first intermission.
The Mustangs second period would start on a positive, with both Dylan Demers and the Mustangs power play continuing their torrid stretch. Demers would pounce on a Trevor Roche rebound for his fourth goal in his last two games just :23 into the second period to tie the game at 2. Minutes later the visitors would have several glorious opportunities, with Noah Buiniskas, Tanner Garand, and Jeffrey Palmer all being denied in quick succession as van Tronk held the fort for the Engineers.
Just as Central Maine appeared to grab hold of the game, the Mustangs would let themselves down for a brief stretch in the second period that would ultimately be their undoing. Jack Talicosian, Colby Gilbert, and Jack Steinberg would all score in a 5:51 span—Gilbert and Steinberg's goals coming just :15 apart with 6 minutes left in the period—to bust the game open for the Engineers. Lucio Nicoletti would assist on Gilbert and Talicosian's goals, while Steinberg's tally would come unassisted.
"Our second period, man, that was disappointing," said Mustangs head coach Matt Buotte. "It was really hard to watch, honestly. There was a six minute stretch where our game completely sagged and it cost us a huge game. It happened at Dartmouth, it happened here. You can't play 55 minutes in this league and have success."
The Mustangs responded in third, putting a barrage of shots—19 in all—towards van Tronk's cage. It would prove to be too little, too late, however. The Engineers would strike against the run of play to effectively put the game out of reach with Seppenwodle registering his second goal and third point of the evening, a power play tally that came on a 2-on-2 rush after the Mustangs failed to ice the puck. Warren Kalberg would add his second goal of the season off a perfect Trevor Roche feed with 3:13 to go, but it was merely a consolation goal. The Engineers would rub salt in the wound with just over a minute to play after Central Maine had pulled their goaltender in desperation, with Steinberg notching his fourth point of the night on his second goal into an empty net.
The Mustangs fell to 1-3-0 with the loss, while Worcester got their first win of the season after opening the year with a road loss to Wentworth Institute of Technology. Central Maine outshot the Engineers 40-39 and went 1-for-4 on the power play. The Mustangs will next be in action when they travel to Henniker, New Hampshire for an exhibition contest against New England College. Their next ACHA match comes on November 8th when they travel to Boston to take on Wentworth.
"There were some positives to take from this one," said Buotte. "We just have to learn from it and look ahead. We aren't a deep enough or a talented enough team that we can show up and take shifts off and disengage. We have to be ready to go every single night from buzzer to buzzer or we're not going to have much success. Hopefully that lesson will be learned here and we can move forward. There are plenty of huge games left this semester."
