Waterville, Maine- The Mules Men's Hockey team played #9 Endicott College in their first game in 2022. The Mules were looking to improve to 4-2 on the season and to make a statement against a nationally ranked program.
With both teams getting off to a bit of a slow start, the Mules were able to gain some momentum against the Gulls, with
Clay Korpi putting a shot into traffic, where
Drew Burke was able to tip home past the the Gulls goaltender to put the Mules up 1-0, scoring his first goal of the season 14:22 into the first period. The Mules were able to fend off the Gulls for the rest of the period, with
Andy Beran making 13 saves.
Moving into the second period with the lead, the Mules played strong defense to fend off the Gulls. A very evenly matched period, despite the Mules having two power play opportunities, the Mules and the Gulls would finish the period even in shots at 7 each. The Mules also showed a strong penalty kill after
Michael Thomas took an interference penalty with 8:03 left in the period. An evenly matched period would result in no score change, the Mules still leading 1-0 heading into the final twenty minutes.
In the final twenty minutes, tensions began to rise as time began to dwindle, with Endicott becoming very frustrated. Such frustrations resulted in
Quinn Doyle drawing a charging penalty, with the Endicott Player taking a five-minute major penalty and game misconduct. Doyle also took a two minute roughing penalty at the same time, 7:57 into the third. The Mules were unable to capitalize on their power play, once again, but continued to show strong offensive opportunities to take time off of the clock. With just over a minute left in the game, the Gulls pulled their goaltender, and
Carter Breitenfeldt would score his third goal of the season with an assist being credited to
Michael Thomas with eight seconds remaining in the game. The Mules would win 2-0 with
Andy Beran making 28 saves.
The Mules play next on Friday January, 7 at 7:00 PM against Amherst College in Amherst, Massachusetts.
