Auburn, Maine - A second period hat trick from Shawn Sullivan propelled the Mustangs to a thrilling 6-3 victory on home ice Saturday night over DII ACHA opponent Suffolk University. The Norway Savings Bank Arena crowd was treated to an offensive explosion from the Mustangs, who set a season high in goals as they outpaced a high-powered Rams club who were looking for their first away win of the season.
Suffolk would come off the bus flying, with Ryan Porter slipping a Jack Stafford feed past Mustangs starting goaltender Ben Feldman to put the Rams up 1-0. The Mustangs would immediately answer back, however, with Jeff Palmer scoring his first collegiate goal just under four minutes later. After stealing the puck on the half wall, Palmer forced the puck to the front where he redirected a Noah Buiniskas shot with his foot to send the home crowd into a frenzy.
"The bench was thrilled for Jeff, and moreso for that entire line," said Mustangs second year coach Matt Buotte. "They've worked so hard. They deserved a goal and they couldn't have picked a better time to get one."
The teams would trade chances throughout the remainder of the first until Porter would strike again, this time collecting a Jeffrey Cowles feed and firing past Feldman to give Suffolk a 2-1 advantage through one period of play.
The game was not without controversy--Central Maine defenseman Riley Lavoie and Suffolk defenseman Junior Delgado were both ejected with 1:42 remaining in the first period for what seemed to be an innocuous coming together after a whistle in play. The two received game disqualification for facemask infractions, a call seldom seen in hockey.
"It was a weird play," said Buotte. "I talked to the Suffolk coach after the period about it. We were both in disbelief. I'm a fan of referees calling things tight because I think it really cleans the game up, but this was such a bizarre sequence. I feel bad for Riley, he's not the type of kid to take these types of penalties. We felt he was a little hard done."
The Mustangs seemed to use the ejection as a lightning rod as the team started the second period firing. Then, shortly into the middle stanza it would become the Shawn Sullivan show. Sullivan, a Gorham, Maine native, had been mired in an ACHA scoring drought that dated back to October 27th when he fired home against Worcester Polytechnic, a stretch of five games. Sullivan would burst to life in the middle period, scoring a natural hat trick to flip the game on it's head.
The first goal would come on the power play 5:30 into the period. After collecting an Austin Taylor feed off the wall, Sullivan deked his way into the slot, fired a wrist shot, and then buried his own rebound to put the Mustangs back on level terms. He would then add another power play marker--this time a blistering slap shot from the blue line--with 5:25 remaining to put the Mustangs ahead for what would prove to be for good. He would cap off his historic period with an unassisted goal with :09 remaining, picking up the puck inside his own blue line and bursting the length of the ice to flip a wrist shot past Rams netminder Kenny Uminski to send Central Maine into the locker room with a two goal cushion.
"Sully really put the team on his back tonight," said Buotte of the Mustangs two-year captain. "It was a great performance at both ends of the ice. The goals were huge, obviously, but he ate some huge minutes and made some huge defensive plays. It was a monster performance when we really needed one."
The Mustangs would push their lead to three just under five minutes into the third. River Yearwood would tap in a rebound on a 3-on-2 rush after Sean Coleman had set up Zac Brown in transition. Brown's initial attempt was thwarted before Yearwood could poke in his second goal of the year--both against Suffolk--and give the Mustangs a 5-2 edge.
Jack Stafford would capitalize on a power play with 8:50 remaining to cut the lead to 5-3, but it would prove to be a consolation goal. Taylor would finish the night off for the hosts with Uminkski on the bench for an extra attacker, taking a Parker Springer chip end-to-end and sliding it into the yawning cage to send the Mustangs faithful home ecstatic.
"Beating a team like Suffolk is huge for us," said Sullivan, who was named the game's first star by members of the local media. "They're a highly skilled team and we knew it would take a full 60 minutes."
The team will now turn it's attention to its final game of the first semester as they host the University of New England on Sunday afternoon at Norway Savings Bank Arena. The teams met back on October 26th at UNE, when a Dylan Demers hat trick secured a 5-4 win for the Mustangs. Central Maine hopes the Suffolk win can be a springboard for bigger things to come as the team flips the calendar to the second semester.
"We've put in a lot of hard work since we got here and things are starting to come together,' mused Sullivan. "I can't say enough about the group of guys we have on this team and look forward to keeping things rolling second semester."
