Maryland dropped the opening game of a 2 day series against the Danbury Hat Tricks Friday
night by a score of 2 goals to 1. In a closely contested affair scoring chances were at a premium
and the Hat Tricks made theirs count. This loss goes down as the first in regulation for the Black
Bears this season.

Luke Mountain opened the tallying his 4th point in 5 games with a pin-point accurate shot over
the shoulder of Danbury goaltender Edvard Nordlund from a sharp angle. 8 Penalties would be
called in total through the middle stage of the first period, 5 on Maryland, and 3 on Danbury but
nothing would come of the special teams play. Danbury tied the game with just over a minute to
go in the first period thanks to a bang-bang play set up by Alex Duncan and finished by Jake
Veri. No scoring occurred in the second period but both goaltenders made a series of
miraculous sprawling saves to keep the score deadlocked at 1 through 40 minutes. It looked as
if the game was destined to head to overtime in what would be the 4th tie in 5 games for
Maryland so far this season. Danbury managed to notch a late winner with just over 3 minutes to
play in the final period, courtesy of a net-mouth scramble finished off by Ben Biester. Luke
Mountain was issued a 5 minute major as well as a game misconduct with 1:40 to go in the
game for head contact.

Maryland and Danbury meet again today at 6:30 PM EDT at Ice World and
broadcast live on HockeyTv.