The Maine men’s hockey team got off to a quick start on Friday night and took advantage of some early undisciplined penalties by Holy Cross, culminating in a 4-1 victory in the season opener at Hart Center Rink in Worcester, Massachusetts.
Just 3:45 into the game the Crusaders went to a disadvantage, as Ben Riche got called for a crosschecking penalty. The Black Bears called for a review on the same play, and Owen Kim was given a five minute major and a game misconduct for contact to the head. Maine would look really good on the 5 on 3 powerplay, as Robert Morris transfer Tanner Klimpke scored a pair of beautiful goals that were both very similar. On the first one at 4:54, Sully Scholle walked into the high slot and slid it off to Isa Parekh in the left faceoff circle. Parekh faked the shot and sent a laser of a pass cross ice to Klimpke in the right circle who buried the one-timer into the back of a half empty net. A few minutes later at 7:33, Parekh and Scholle helped again to set up the second one for Klimpke. Scholle started it behind the net sending a backhanded pass to Parekh in the low slot, who spotted Klimpke again in the right circle for the one-timed bullet past Holy Cross goalie Danick Leroux to make it 2-0.
The Crusaders got back into the game in the second period, as Matthew Kursonis made a beautiful curl drag move shorthanded and beat Black Bears goalie Albin Boija at 5:05 to cut it to 2-1. Boija did make several key saves after that to keep the hosts off the board for the remainder of the contest including a stop on a breakaway by Jack Martin 1:35 into the third. With 14 minutes left, Falmouth native Brock James got a nice feed from Lukas Petterson to extend the Maine lead back to a pair. Captain Owen Fowler iced the opening night win with an empty net goal with 1:40 remaining.
Riche added an assist and Leroux made 26 saves in the loss for the Crusaders. Holy Cross went 0-4 on the powerplay. Boija made 18 stops in the Maine win. Klimpke had the two goals, while Scholle, Parekh, and Petterson had two assists each. Judah Makway and Samuel Alfano both added one assist. The Black Bears went 2-7 on their extra man chances. The teams will finish off their two game series on Saturday night at 7 p.m. The location will still be in Worcester, but that contest will be played at the DCU Center.
Photo is from UMaine Athletics
