Dutchmen edge Tigers

Looking to bounce back after dropping its first two games of the season to New Hampshire, Union took on Colorado College in its hockey home opener, which was its first game at Messa Rink in 601 days. It was a happy return as Union won 2-1 Friday night.

This game was also a bit of a homecoming for Colorado College coach Kris Mayotte. He was the starting goalie for Union College from 2002-06 and finished his college career with 116 games played and a 2.69 goals-against average while earning ECAC Hockey all-rookie team (2003) and ECAC secondteam (2006) honors.

The first period was a back-and-forth defensive battle. Union was outshot 11-9. An early highlight for the Dutchmen in the first period was when Colorado College forward Logan Will had the Union defense beat and had a oneon-one opportunity, but Union goalie Connor Murphy answered with a great stop to keep the game scoreless.

In the second period, the tide turned when Colorado College got called for slashing, and then boarding a minute later. This led to a 5-on-3 power play for Unionit, which the Dutchmen took full advantage of when freshman forward Colin Graf drove home a beautiful onetimer off a pass from Brandon

Estes for his first goal of the season and his collegiate career.

About five minutes later, Colorado College sophomore forward Hunter Mckown gathered a nice pass on the side of the net to knot the game up at 1.

The tie didn’t last long. Union responded quickly when Brandon Estes went 5-hole after being set up with a pass from Graf, whom he’d set up for a goal earlier in the period, to give Union a 2-1 lead.

“He’s done really well, he does a lot of good things for us,” Estes said of Graf. “Young guys, having a good time here.”

The beginning of the third period saw Union kill off two more penalties, before Bram Scheerer got hit with a kneeing penalty, which led to a five-minute major, and after review; a game misconduct. Colorado College managed seven shots on goal during the final power play, but Union again managed to kill off the penalty, making them 6-for-6 on the penalty kill for the night.