Auburn, ME – CMCC Men's Hockey nearly let a three-goal lead slip before holding off the Coast Guard Academy 5-4 on Friday night at Norway Savings Bank Arena. The Mustangs built a 4-1 lead in the second period only to see the Bears claw their way back to 4-4 early in the third. Captain Diego Alonso scored the game-winner on a great individual effort with nine minutes to play. 

Freshman forward Dylan Blue set the tone early by scoring the game's first goal just 23 seconds in. Fellow Lewiston High School product Evan Knowlton made a nice move through the slot before dropping a pass behind him for Blue. The winger's initial shot was stopped but he poked home the rebound for his seventh tally of the campaign. 
 
Coast Guard evened things up midway through the frame on a power play goal. Starting goaltender Gage Ducharme made a right toe save on Quinn Castelli's shot from the right circle, but the rebound caromed out in front for Matthew Clarke to fire home. That tied the game at 1-1 heading into the first intermission. 
 
The Mustangs apparently liked that method of scoring, as they produced a nearly identical copy to retake the lead early in the second. Aaron Higgins sent the shot from the right side off the pad of goaltender Stone Grant, and Cody Ivey was unmarked at the back post to slam the rebound into the empty side of the net. The seventh of the year for the senior forward made it 2-1 just 2:13 into the period. 
 
Knowlton made it 3-1 with a power play marker of his own two minutes later. The alternate captain sizzled a shot through traffic to beat the screened goaltender clean from the right point. Team-leading scorer Higgins next got in on the act with an end-to-end rush before finding the net on a wrist shot to make it 4-1. The former Travis Roy Award finalist from Falmouth, ME now has 21 goals in 17 games. 
 
The Bears used their timeout to try and end CMCC's momentum. The call proved to be a genius one as off the face-off at center ice, Coast Guard skated into the zone and scored just seven seconds later. Clarke redirected the puck through the five-hole off a deflected pass from Connor Morris. 
 
Still, Central Maine did not appear to be in imminent danger thanks to a hefty 41-10 advantage in shots on goal. However, the Coast Guard squad showed their stamina with their band of just 14 skaters blitzing their hosts early in the third period. 
 
The Bears scored on their first two shots of the frame. Morris squeezed in a wide-open one-timer from the slot just 29 seconds into the period. Then Clarke finished off his hat trick with his third of the night three minutes later to tie the game at 4-4. Head coach Jordy Knoren made the decision to replace Ducharme, who was battling the flu, in net with Sebastian Couturier for the remainder of the game. The Twin City Thunder product made 16 saves the rest of the way to keep the Bears from gaining their first lead of the night. 
 
Needing a spark, captain Alonso rose to the occasion on a power play halfway through the third. The San Sebastián, Spain native played a give-and-go with Ivey in his own zone before racing down the left wing, cutting across the top of the crease, and tucking a shot around Stone's outstretched left pad. It was the fifth of the year for the junior forward out of Thornton Academy and put the Mustangs up for good, 5-4 with nine minutes to play. 
 
CMCC outshot the Coast Guard 57-28 on the night with five different players hitting the back of the net. The team finished 2-for-6 on the power play to boost their conversion rate to a healthy 29.9% for the year.  
 
The Mustangs improve to 13-5-0 overall on the year as they head into their final home game of the first semester against Wentworth Institute of Technology. Puck drop against the Leopards is scheduled for 3:40 pm on Sunday, December 8th.