By Daniel Chavkin

In their first game back from break, the division 3 men’s ice hockey team struggled to get going against George Mason University. Within the first three minutes of the game, GMU scored two goals on goalie Mike Griffin. It took a while but the Terps settled down in the first period to make the game more evenly matched. Junior forward Reed Kaczmarek scored right before intermission to cut the GMU lead to one.

In the 2nd period, Maryland came out strong and determined to tie the game.  They had multiple odd-man rushes on GMU goalie Bryan Kraus, but failed to put the puck in the net. At 13:26 in the 2nd period, GMU extended their lead to 3-1. Later in the period, UMD took two penalties to give GMU more opportunities. While GMU didn’t capitalize, they did exert their presence on both power plays and scored seconds after the second power play ended.

Down 4-1, UMD caught two breaks with two separate power play opportunities, one a two-minute minor and the other a five-minute major. However, they failed to capitalize on either chance and went into the 2nd intermission down 3 with 2:14 left on the five-minute major power play.

GMU killed off their penalty to start the 3rd period thanks to some great play by Kraus. Then, in a 20 second span, GMU scored two goals to increase their lead to 6-1. After another successful penalty kill by each team, GMU took a five minute major penalty for fighting. In that five-minute span, UMD scored two goals to make the game a three-point deficit. However, this wasn’t enough as GMU won the game 6-3.

Junior forward Reed Kaczmarek finished the game with two goals, while junior defenseman Alex Shephard chipped in with a goal himself. Forwards D.J Debrakeleer, Drew Danick, Jason Winik, and defenseman Brendan Dwyer each had an assist on the day. The Terps next game is Saturday, January 31 at VCU.