The M1 George Mason Patriots opened the regular season with an 8-2 victory in their home opener on September 15th against Towson. GMU would go on to sweep the weekend in a much closer affair on Saturday at Towson, by a score of 2-1.   

On Friday, GMU started off strong in the first 5 minutes as freshman Aleksei Karpov scored his first career goal (PP; unassisted). Keeping their foot on the gas, freshman Drew Tsakounis would net his first career goal soon after (PP; Dillon, Miranda) with a snapshot through a screen on the Power Play. Towson would cut the lead to one with just minutes left in the first period after catching a break off a face-off from their own zone, leading to a shorthanded breakaway that found its way in the back of the net.

In the second period, GMU regained their lead after Towson scored on the power play earlier in the period. Freshman Joe Petite added to the list of “firsts” with his first goal (PP; Price, Miranda (2)). While GMU pushed for more chances towards the end of the period, with multiple power play opportunities in the last ten minutes, the score remained 3-2 after two.

The third period opened up a bit as GMU would put home 5 goals in the final 20 minutes of action. With 12:35 left senior Raymond Booth scored a shorthanded goal off a breakaway to put the Patriots up 4-2 (unassisted). With 6:47 left, junior Chandler Lynch scored of a re-direct infront of the Towson net to give the Patriots their 4th PP goal of the evening (PP; Alley, Booth). Shortly after, freshman Dmitry Ignatov scored his first goal as he entered the zone off a broken play and snapped one past the Towson netminder (Lynch). In the last few minutes of the period sophomore Kael Dillon put another puck in the net off a pass from Miranda, his third assist of the game. With only 53 seconds to spare Joe Petite scored his second goal of the game through a display of patience and finesse as he stuffed one home short-side off the rush (Willey, Strompolis). The victory gave Freshman goaltender Lukas Heuberger his first career win as he played all 60 minutes and saved 13 shots on goal.  

To finish the weekend strong, GMU traveled to Towson’s home ice on September 16th and won a much tighter match-up 2-1. In the first period sophomore Mike Miranda scored an even strength goal off a pass from his linemates Karpov and Price just moments after Towson hit the post one a breakaway. Miranda’s goal would tie it up 1-1 as Towson grabbed an early goal off the rush in the first 10 minutes.

With 9:44 seconds left in the second period, Drew Tsakounis scored his second powerplay goal of the weekend as he gathered a rebound in-front of the Towson crease and snapped it home (PP; Dillon, Price). Junior goaltender Tanner Rusnak helped the team shut the door at the end as the Patriots killed off multiple penalties as time expired, finishing the game with 27 saves and a 2-1 victory.  
 

Join the team Saturday, September 23 @ 7:50 PM, as they take on Temple University, at Northeast Skate Zone in Philadelphia. Be sure to follow GMU Ice Hockey on Twitter to get live updates on every game this season.