Auburn, Maine - The Central Maine Community College hockey team began it's second semester with a hard-fought 4-1 loss at the hands of unbeaten #2 Dartmouth on Saturday night at Norway Savings Bank Arena. Alex Hughes scored his first two collegiate goals for the visitors as they improved to 12-0-1 and swept the season series with the Mustangs, who also lost the away match-up by a 9-2 count on October 13th.
The teams played two 25 minute halves at the order of the referees on Saturday after travel difficulties saw Dartmouth arrive a few minutes late to the contest. Big Green struck just 4:28 into the game, with Hughes scoring an unassisted goal after the Mustangs turned the puck over just inside the offensive blue line. Hughes picked up the puck off of the half wall and darted to the middle, slipping a wrist shot past Mustangs goaltender Ben Feldman.
"It wasn't exactly the start we drew up," said Mustangs head coach Matt Buotte. "I thought we responded well after that, though. We started to really push the play for solid stretches of the first half against a really quality team."
Noah Buiniskas saw a glorious chance turned aside by Dartmouth goaltender Michael Cullen, who stopped 23 shots in the victory. Perhaps the best chance of the night came when Trevor Roche found himself alone in the slot only to sail a shot over Cullen's shoulder. The score would remain unchanged for most of the first until Dartmouth would finally double their lead with 1:59 remaining in the first. Chris Picard would fire home on the power play, taking a Chris Mahoney feed and blasting a shot from the center point that eluded Feldman and gave Dartmouth a 2-0 lead heading into intermission.
The Mustangs would finally break through in the second half 4:42 into the period, with Trevor Roche finishing a power play rush to halve the deficit. Shawn Sullivan and Sam Alexander received assists on the play. However, after the goal was scored Alexander received a cross-checking penalty after the play that put the Mustangs shorthanded. Just over a minute later Mahoney would extend Dartmouth's lead back to two, finishing off an Andy McBurney feed with 19:05 to play.
"That was the turning point in my opinion," said Buotte. "We were undisciplined all night. Whenever we'd get something going we'd take a penalty and have to take two steps back. It's tough to win when you put a team like Dartmouth on the power play six times."
Darmouth would finish off the scoring just two minutes later when Hughes buried his second of the night on a rebound. Tyler Baum picked up the lone assist. Buotte would call a timeout to settle his charges. The Mustangs would continue to push for a spark, even pulling their goaltender with more than 10 minutes left in the contest on an extended 5-on-3 power play but they were unable to solve Cullen, who turned aside chance after chance in the victory. Feldman stopped 37 in defeat.
The Mustangs went 1-for-5 on the power play, while Darmouth clicked at 2-for-6 and out shot the Mustangs 41-24. Greg Simpson and Sam Alexander made their Mustang debuts, while Isaiah Dubois and Collin Sheehan returned to the roster for the first time since January of 2019.
"Overall, it really was a good hockey game and a good way to start the semester," said Buotte. "They're one of the top teams in the region. It was a good measuring stick. We're improving but we're not quite where we want to be. We'll take the positives, learn from the negatives, and keep on moving forward. There are a lot of big games left to play this semester."
