DURHAM, N.H. In the first-meeting between the two programs in the Division I era, American International College was defeated by the University of New Hampshire, 7-3, in non-conference men's ice hockey action in front of 4,184 fans Saturday evening from the Whittemore Center.
UNH improves to 1-0-0 on the year as the Yellow Jackets fall to 0-0-1 to open the 2015-16 hockey season.
Junior Austin Orszulak (Springfield, Mass.) started the scoring in the first for AIC as sophomore goaltender Alex Murray (Burlington, Ont.) played the puck to the sideboards where it was chipped along by senior Brandon Lubin (Commerce Township, Mich.) to Orszulak.
The junior then created the play all on his own scooping up the puck in the neutral zone skating past defenders and around the back of the net from left to right, he then centered himself below the right dot and sent a wicked wrister over the blocker of the goalie that lit the lamp for the 1-0 edge at 7:35 of the opening frame.
Following an AIC power play that was killed off, UNH broke free in the neutral zone and it was sophomore Andrew Poturalski (Lumberton, N.J.) finding junior Tyler Kelleher (Longmeadow, Mass.) in the right slot and he skated free, deked left, and beat Murray under the right pad for the 1-1 tie at 11:29.
AIC tilted the score back in their favor at 2:03of the second as Lubin fired one on net from the right point that was booted in front and sophomore Bryant Christian (Moorhead, Minn.) jammed in the rebound for the 2-1 edge.
However, just 14 ticks later UNH answered to tie the contest again as freshman Matt Dawson (Delta, B.C.) found the back of the net for the equalizer.
Senior Chris Porter (Stoufville, Ont.) nearly gave the Jackets the lead again as he raced through the offensive zone from the left wing, but his bid to pick the short side clanked off the iron at 5:57 of the middle frame keeping the contest knotted at 2-2.
The Wildcats then grabbed the lead for the first time in the game as Poturalski skated through the crease and used a beautiful backdoor, no-look feed to Kelleher for a point-blank goal at 8:51 of the second for the 3-2 score.
Then taking advantage of a tripping call to go on the power play it was Poturalski and Kelleher finding line mate and senior Dan Correale (Prince George, B.C.) as he got in on the scoring tickling the twine at 15:45 for the 4-2 edge.
Coming off a penalty kill late in the period Kelleher found himself on a break-away and a bid for the hat-trick with less than 90 seconds remaining, but Murray got the pad down and kept the game in hand for the moment.
UNH continued to add to their lead as they made the score 5-2 at 7:03 of the third period as on an odd-man rush sophomore Michael McNicholas (Manhattan Beach, Calif.) found classmate Jason Salvaggio (Hanson, Mass.) who shot high blocker for the score.
Christian nearly set-up junior Carson Grolla (Trail, B.C.) for a power-play goal at 9:55, but the defenseman wasn't able to get enough on the one-timer and his bid was stuffed as the power-play expired.
Sophomore Johno May (Mahtomedi, Minn.) did give AIC life as he showed some fancy stick work pulling the puck back and slipping it past sophomore Danny Tirone (Trumbull, Conn.) on the backhand for the 5-3 score at 11:25.
UNH added a late empty net goal and some fancy puck movement would lead to another as the Wildcats took the opening night victory, 7-3.
Murray collected 25 saves on the night while Tirone stopped 26 shots in the victory
The Jackets were outshot 33-29 by the hosts while neither team really excelled on the power-play as AIC was 0-for-5 and UNH 1-for-4.
AIC will resume play next Friday as they battle Alaska-Fairbanks as part of the Brice Alaska Goal Rush with a 7:07 p.m. puck drop Alaska Standard Time.
