Box Score Waterville, Maine - The Mules took on the USM Huskies today at 1pm to celebrate the seniors in a less than conventional way.  The team was excited to take the ice with the opportunity to play a final home game to celebrate the seniors, a group who has put so much time into the program.  With a lot of back and forth the team eventually fell 2-1 to University of Southern Maine.

 

The Huskies started off the game strong, easily controlling the first 5:00 minutes of the first due to an early hooking penalty from Colby's Clay Korpi (7). The Mules soon found their footing, although their momentum was set back due to a holding penalty from senior defender Tim Reilly (17) 10:00 into the first, which resulted in a goal from USM's Tyler Gardiner (9), assisted by Derek Tillotson (19). With 2:00 left, the Mules capitalized on a power play, tying the game up on a blistering slapshot from freshman Henry Molson (13), assisted by Brian Sanzone (9). The first period ended with the Mules out-shooting the Huskies 14-11, with 13 saves from USM's Gabriel Couture (1) and 10 saves from Hapward.

The Mules had an opportunity to take the lead just 3:00 into the second period off a boarding penalty from USM's Nick Ritmo (20) but unfortunately could not capitalize on the power play. The Huskies had an answer though, scoring with 7:00 minutes left in the second period on a three on two situation. The go-ahead goal came from Adam Withers (12) with assists to Adam Papayoanou (6) and Curtis Judd (21). As if repeating the end of the first period, the Mules were a man up for the final 2:00 minutes due to a boarding penalty against USM's Brendan Dowler (8), but unfortunately could not capitalize on the opportunity this time around. The second period ended with 9 saves from Hapward, and 13 from USM's Couture.

USM went on the power play just 2:21 into the third period off of a hooking penalty from Molson, but were unable to score with Hapward making many saves. The Mules once again proved their impressive penalty kill abilities, fighting off another penalty, this time from freshman Griffin Grise (4) for cross-checking. The Mules looked to tie it up on a promising top-shelf shot from junior Sanzone, although it just missed and deflected off the crossbar. The remainder of the third period proceeded in a back and forth fashion, with neither team able to capitalize and resulting in a USM 2-1 win. Colby ended the game with a total of 41 shots while USM finished with 30.

The Mules will play the Huskies again next weekend in Gorham at 2pm.  We continue to ask fans to stream the games and stay out of the rinks to minimize COVID transmission as we approach mass vaccination.