By Nick Gimbel

On a night that consisted of a full moon falling on Friday the 13th, there was nothing nightmarish about the start that Embry-Riddle had against the UCF Knights. The last game for the Eagles at the 2019 SCHC playoffs saw ERAU fall to the Knights, but redemption was in the water in Daytona.

With the start of the season being delayed by Hurricane Dorian last weekend, the Embry-Riddle Eagles and their fans were counting down the seconds until puck drop, and it didn’t take long for the Eagles to jump out on top. Turner Kaufmann got the ball rolling at 6:21 of the first period, with Adrian Debrah getting an assist on the play. The rest of the period saw the Eagles killing of penalties into the intermission, which allowed UCF to take a 10-8 shot lead after 20 minutes.

Starting the second period with a 1-0 lead, it could have been very easy for the Eagles to fall into a tie game. Instead, a powerplay goal from Kyle Usiak, assisted by newly appointed captain Ryan Marks, and a highlight-reel, short-handed goal off a faceoff win for Noah Austin gave Embry-Riddle a 3-0 lead after 40 minutes. The Eagles also held a 17-4 shot lead through the 2nd period, further imposing their dominance over their SCHC rivals.

The start of the third period started off with more of the same from the Eagles. Both Kaufmann and Usiak picked up their second goals of the campaign, at 2:53 and 7:02 of the final frame. Those two tallies gave the Eagles a commanding 5-0 lead over the Knights, but you don’t win a hockey game without playing through to the final whistle. UCF gave the Eagles a little bit of a scare with 3-straight goals from Angrella, LaLonde (pp), and Walkinshaw. However, it was too-little too-late for the Knights as time was an enemy UCF could not overcome, and the final bullet came with just 14 seconds left on the clock. Turner Kaufmann was able to complete the hat-trick and cement a 6-3 victory for the Eagles over their I-4 rivals in the home/season opener. ERAU also finished off UCF on the shot board 37-24.

Game two of the weekend between ERAU and UCF will be tomorrow, 9/14 at the RDV Sportsplex at 4pm. The Eagles’ next home game will be on Friday, 9/20 against the USF Bulls with puck-drop scheduled for 6:30pm.