GENEVA, Ill. – MSOE men's hockey visited the Harris Cup Playoffs championship round last season and tonight they started their quest to get back there against No. 13 Aurora. The sixth seeded Raiders started out strong and matched the third seeded Spartans goal for goal, but penalties caught up to the Red & White in their three tally loss in game one.

FINAL SCORE
MSOE RAIDERS (No. 6 seed) – 3
No. 13 Aurora (No. 3 seed) – 6

HOW IT HAPPENED

• No. 6 seed MSOE (10-14-2, 8-10-1 NCHA) and No. 3 seed Aurora went to war for the third straight game and second straight season to open up the Harris Cup Playoffs. Each team scored a pair of goals in the opening period starting with two from the Spartans before Kevin Paganini and Matt Hanewall got the Raiders on the board with back-to-back goals of their own.
• The two teams traded lamp lighters to being the second as well. Aurora netted their first halfway through the frame before Adam Czarnecki evened things up less than one minute later. The Spartans took back the lead for good however when they capitalized on the power play to go up 4-3.
• A five-minute major and game misconduct assessed to the Raiders for hitting from behind eliminated any chance for a comeback as the Spartans capitalized with two goals and ended the contest with a 6-3 victory.

RAIDER REMARKS

• The Raiders committed seven penalties and the Spartans took advantage of that by scoring on three of their six extra man chances. 

MSOE STAT TRACKER
Shots – Garrett Gintoli (6)
Goals – Three with one
Assists – Four with one
Saves – Darius Bell (26)

WHO'S ON DECK
The Raiders must win tomorrow afternoon against Aurora to force a minigame immediately afterwards to determine who will advance to the next round. That battle will start at 3:00 pm once again in Geneva, Ill.

For up-to-the-minute MSOE Raiders news, visit us at www.go-raiders.com. You can also follow the Red & White on Twitter @MSOE_Raiders and @msoe_raiders on Instagram.