Auburn, ME – The CMCC men's hockey team suffered its first loss of the season, falling 5-2 on home ice to the Colorado School of Mines Orediggers in ACHA action. Colby Pawson and Aaron Higgins both scored their second goals of the year in the defeat.

Despite their long travel, the visitors from Colorado got off to the hotter start in the first period, peppering Sebastian Couturier with shots early and drawing penalties from the Mustangs. It was a power play that got the Orediggers on the board 15:15 into the frame. Jordan Larese took a pass from Scott MacDonald and cruised into the zone, deked between the pair of CMCC defensemen and tucked a shot upstairs over the glove for a 1-0 lead.

The Colorado School of Mines took that lead to the locker room after outshooting Central Maine 15-8 in the first period.

The Mustangs responded in the second period. Jake Harshman whacked a loose puck into the offensive end for Emmit Sullivan to chase down. The sophomore from Gorham, ME put his shot low off the right pad of goaltender Connor Mahon and right back into the slot for Pawson to bury the rebound. That made it 1-1 just 4:38 into the second.

With momentum on their side the Mustangs continued to create chances and put themselves in front just past the midpoint of the hockey game. Michael Belleau won an offensive zone face-off from the right circle and Higgins did the rest, roofing his wrister over the blocker and up under the bar for a 2-1 lead. The Falmouth, ME native has now scored in both games for Central Maine since transferring from Liberty University.

The Orediggers would dig in though and tied the game with 1:28 left before the intermission on another power play tally. Nick Malaniuk won the race to the end line to negate an icing whistle. He flipped a backhand pass in front for Jean Long that was stopped by Couturier, but there was nobody home at the back post to keep Aidan Hamre from knocking in the rebound.

Colorado looked much more comfortable coming out of the locker room being back on even footing for the third period, and took the lead less than a minute into the frame. Nathan Cote sent Henry Taliaferro down the right wing with the puck. He set up Larese into the zone and the forward did the rest, toe-dragging before sending a twisted wrister over the glove for a 3-2 lead.

The Mustangs got a chance to tie things up with a power play after a Kellen Gormley elbowing penalty, but ended up giving up the insurance goal instead. Emilio Rodriguez dispossessed Higgins at the blue line, but saw his shot blocked after dancing his way into the slot. But Ripken Renner was on hand to fish the puck out from underneath captain Zach Mitton and fire home the shorthanded tally from point blank range.

It was another turnover from the same exact spot that led to the fifth goal. Ben Lombardi swiped it away from Alex Alonso at the right point and buried a wrist shot from the right circle past a screened Couturier. That made it 5-2 with 3:24 left to play.

Colorado closed things out from there to earn the win at the start of a four-game road trip through New England. The two teams square off again in Auburn on Monday, October 14^th. Face-off is at 1:45 pm.