Oct. 24, 2008

Box Score

POTSDAM, N.Y. - The 2008-09 season began on Friday night for the Adrian men's hockey team and the outcome was not what they expected having battled to a 6-6 tie at Potsdam. What was more shocking was that Adrian trailed 6-2 after two periods before staging a furious comeback with four goals in the third period to send the game into overtime. The tie is the first in school history after Adrian went 26-3 during their first season.

Potsdam trailed 2-0 in the second period before erupting for six straight goals in a span of 16:17 of the second stanza. The Bulldogs led 1-0 after the first 20 minutes as Mike Dahlinger scored the season's first goal on an even strength tally with assists from Sam Kuzyk and Jeremy Klaver at the 4:54 mark.

Adam Krug, the nation's leading scorer a year ago, got his first goal of the season on an even strength shot at the 1:53 mark of the second period. Eric Miller got the first of his three assists and Shawn Skelly also had a helper. The momentum began to shift in a hurry for the Bears as they shocked the Bulldogs for the rest of the period. Kyle Green got Potsdam on the board at 3:43 and after a pair of penalties on the Bulldogs it was Peter Vaisanen who scored a power-play goal at 5:34 to tie the game at 2-2.

Jeff Zatorski scored a power-play tally at 12:49 to give Potsdam their first lead at 3-2. The Bears added three more power-play goals in the second period as Connor Treacy, Anthony Proteau and Matt Rhymer each scored their first goal of the season on the man advantage. Treacy scored at 16:13 followed by Proteau at 19:26 and Rhymer at 19:54.

The Bulldogs managed to stay out of the box in the third period and made a valiant comeback in the final 20 minutes to salvage a tie. Krug's second goal of the game came at 4:03 with an assist from Miller to cut the lead to 6-3. Skelly got in on the action at 5:10 from Miller and Rob Hodnicki to cut the deficit to two goals. Bobby Hineman scored on an even strength goal from Mike Fiorillo at 15:59 to cut the lead to 6-5. The Bulldogs' newest addition, Kyle Frieday, picked a great time to make his prescence felt as he tied the game on a power-play goal with 10 seconds left on an assist from Brad Houston.

Adrian had three shots on goal in the five-minute overtime while Potsdam recorded just one. Potsdam was 5-of-10 on the power play while Adrian went 1-of-7. The Bulldogs recorded 38 shots on goal compared to 26 for the Bears. The third period was the greatest difference as AC outshot Potsdam, 15-4. Adrian served 11 penalties for 44 minutes while Potsdam had nine penalties for 29 minutes. Brad Fogal made 18 saves in net for Adrian while Rick Miller made 32 saves for the Bears.