By Justin Hall ’22 Staff Writer
The men’s ice hockey team hosted Stevenson University in a hard-fought exhibition game that required extra time to decide a winner.
The first period was a back and forth affair that saw both goaltenders trade dazzling saves. Junior transfer Henry Burns turned aside every shot he saw in his Dutchmen debut. On the other end, Stevenson goalie Dylan Schoen kept the game scoreless with a series of highlight saves.
The Mustangs opened the scoring in the waning minutes of the second period when they took advantage of a Dutchmen turnover and fired a shot past Matt Forslund on an odd man rush.
The Dutchmen powerplay was quick to answer, as captain Cole Hepler buried a rebound in the opening minute of the third period to even the score. The teams continued to trade chances, but regulation ended in a 1-1 tie.
The overtime session proved to be short-lived as the Mustangs made the most out of a powerplay and scored on a deflection less than a minute into the extra frame to hand the Dutchmen the 2-1 loss.
Head coach Don Parsons was pleased with the effort he saw from his team but admitted that there were some areas that needed to be cleaned up.
“The coaching staff saw exactly what we expected,” coach Parsons said. “We worked extremely hard, but our execution wasn’t there-that comes with time.”
The Dutchmen officially open the season on Nov. 1 when they travel to Saint Anselm College. The home opener is scheduled for Nov. 9 at 7 p.m. against King’s College.