Maryland Heights, MO – The CMCC Men's Hockey team suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of #4 ranked Oakland University on Wednesday night, falling 11-0 in game two of pool play at the ACHA National Championships in St. Louis, MO. League-leading goal scorer Brendan Danou tallied twice for the Golden Grizzlies, and the Mustangs gave minutes to all three of their dressed goaltenders.
Sebastian Couturier got the start in net during a cagey opening period with both teams looking to find their footing. The Mustangs nearly took the lead just 4:18 into the contest when Aaron Higgins picked out a wide-open Diego Alonso in the left circle. The captain beat goaltender Tate Potteiger to the short side, but the puck hit the post and deflected out across the face of goal.
Oakland, who improved to 25-6-1 on the year with the victory, showed why their offense has been so dangerous this season, when they scored the opener at the 8:23 mark. They won a defensive zone draw before chipping the puck to center, and quick-as-a-flash Connor Crawford was in behind for a breakaway. Couturier gambled, skating out of his crease to try and play the puck, colliding with Crawford in the slot. The Golden Grizzlies forward got his shot off as he tumbled to the ice, finding the back of the net for a 1-0 lead.
Central Maine held them at bay until the final minute of the first period. Defenseman Nick Goldie corralled the puck at the left point, and spotted Danou all alone at the back post. The fifth-year forward from West Bloomfield, MI redirected home a pass across the ice for his league-leading 38th goal of the season with 32 seconds left, spoiling the Mustangs' hopes of getting to the locker room down by just one.
That momentum carried into a lightning-fast start to the second. Off the opening face-off, Jack Abbo got to the puck and slid it over to Danou who was already at full speed. The forward got to left circle and ripped a low shot just inside the far post to make it 3-0 Oakland after only five seconds.
That seemed to be the tally that changed things. Tommy Davis scored to make it 4-0 at 5:43, prompting head coach Jordy Knoren to try and wake his team up by swapping goaltenders; a tactic that worked in Tuesday's opening game.
However, this time the spark did not come. Jake McCatty scored a short-handed goal less than a minute later on the first shot against Isaac White. Abbo scored with 5:15 remaining, and Crawford tallied on the power play for his second of the night to make it 7-0 after two periods of play. Dylan Blue and Mikita Kalmykov both hit the post in a frustrating second period for the Mustangs.
In the third, frustrations boiled over for CMCC, with both teams continuing to take penalties with the outcome of the game no longer in doubt. Brody Plant and Ryan Kotchi each scored in the first five minutes to run the lead up to 9-0. That brought freshman goaltender Ryan Becker into the game for his third appearance of the season. Jules Sainte-Marie and Plant both put shots past the young netminder on either side of the midway point of the game, to reach the final 11-0 scoreline.
CMCC suffered its second shutout loss of the campaign. It was the team's heaviest defeat since the 2017-18 campaign. Oakland University has now scored 10+ goals in a game on eight occasions this season, with 11 being their fourth-most.
The loss all but eliminates Central Maine from contention to reach Friday's semifinals due to tiebreaker procedures. Oakland leads Group D with a 2-0-0 record ahead of both CMCC and the Colorado School of Mines who trail at 1-1-0. The Mustangs and Orediggers round out pool play on Thursday, with puck drop scheduled for 3:15 pm ET.
