ST. LOUIS – The first week of Maryville Saints M1 Hockey has started with a bang. The No. 8-ranked Saints opened up their 24/25 campaign with a familiar rivalry, welcoming in the McKendree Bearcats on Sept. 11 for the home opener, downing them 4-0. Maryville wrapped up their early home stand with the event of the fall thus far when they brought in Missouri State for the Sept. 13-14 matchups, the first of which was their annual Blackout game.
This year's Blackout game set numbers never seen before in Maryville Ice Hockey history. The Saints pulled in a sold out crowd that featured 1,150 fans in attendance.
HOW IT HAPPENED
On Wednesday versus the Bearcats, three powerplay goals were the difference for the Saints, with Max Wagener,
Timon Prexler,
Lucas Adams and
James Vermeersch finding the puck in the back of the net. It also marked the first shutout of the season for
Kyle McNair who was between the pipes.
As the No. 21 Missouri State Bears came to town, the competition got fierce. In the Friday Blackout game, the fans saw 11 goals scored with numerous lead changes including a four unanswered goal stretch by the Saints after going down 2-0. By the time all was said and done, Maryville prevailed by a score of 6-5.
Sam Edwards, Sam Wagener, Felix Turcotte,
Brett Ursulak,
Will Smith, and
Colt Corpse all scored on Friday.
Lucas Bain was in net and recorded the win.
The Saints played with fire all week. Collecting seven penalties on Wednesday and five on Friday, that unfortunate trend continued on Saturday recording seven penalties. Saturday's bout saw the Ice Bears get out to another lead, but Maryville yet again able to claw their way back into the contest, scoring three unanswered. The penalty trouble crept in throughout the game though and the Saints finally got burnt. In the 3rd period on Saturday, Missouri State mounted a comeback and secured the overtime win on the powerplay to end the weekend matchup with a 4-3 victory.
COACHES CORNER
Head Coach John Hogan on the opening homestand and the early fan support…
"Certainly a learning experience right of the hop. The environment was great on Friday and we can't thank our fans and supporters enough for coming out. Unfortunately, our group did not play with the discipline that it's going to take to win a majority of our hockey games. We really played with fire Friday, but we were able to escape with the win. On Saturday, we paid the piper after some careless penalties. We'd certainly rather learn this lesson in September, and I hope we do."
UP NEXT
Sitting 2-0-1 after their opening weekend, M1 Hockey travels to Bloomington, Ill. for their first road trip against Illinois State this upcoming weekend. They'll be back in action Friday, September 20th with a 7 p.m. puck drop. On Saturday, puck drop is 8 p.m. Both games are at the Bloomington Ice Arena.
