Byron Center, Mich. – The #17 Saints started their season tonight (Sept. 30) with a home matchup against the Calvin University Knights. A strong Calvin side managed to slot ten goals into the net to give themselves a 10-4 victory. Calvin is now 3-0 on the season with the Saints falling to an early 1-0 start.

The Saints ripped off to an early start, scoring their first goal of the season just 15 seconds into the first period. Brandon Rozema slotted the puck into the bottom left of the net under the right blocker of Calvin's goalie. Gustov Ostman was credited with an assist in his debut game. Darren Johnson was given the second assist on the goal.

AQ maintained its lead for quite some time as Michael Allman made save after save for Aquinas. Allman made a great glove save at 14:24 and followed that up with a save of the year nomination thanks to an incredible spread eagle one-on-one save. The Saints would get a couple of great opportunities, but the opportunities would come up just short. Calvin's goalie had a great rebound save with 9:20 remaining in the period. Johnson would put a shot off the post just a few minutes later at 6:53 in the period.

The last five minutes of the period were all Calvin. The Knights leveled the score with 4:16 remaining in the period. Calvin scored a powerplay goal with just 1:16 remaining in the period with a wrist shot into the top right of the net. Calvin would score one more time with just 19 seconds remaining to earn themselves a comfortable lead heading into the first intermission.

Calvin quickly extended its lead early on in the second period, slotting the puck into the net three minutes and 56 seconds into the period. However, AQ would immediately respond with a goal of its own just 37 seconds later. Dylan Rumpke scored his first goal of the season with the assists coming from Mason Stewart and Alex Johnson is his debut game as a Saint. Stewart had his shot saved, but Johnson was able to recover the puck and slide it to Rumpke for the goal.

The Saints would narrow Calvin's lead to just one goal with 6:06 left to play in the period. Darren Johnson got in on the action again with a goal after he took the puck up the ice off a pass from Stewart. D. Johnson now had a goal and an assist while Stewart had two assists.

As the period wound down to the end, Calvin pulled out some magic, scoring three goals within 34 seconds to extend its lead to four goals. Calvin scored at 1:44, 1:20, and 1:10 remaining on the clock. Aquinas would switch to Max Johnston in net after the sixth Calvin goal. As both sides entered the locker rooms, Aquinas would have a lot of ground to make up.

The deficit was too much to overcome for the Saints. Calvin added on two more goals before AQ got a consolation goal back with 6:40 remaining in the third period. Rumpke scored his second goal of the game coming off D. Johnson's third assist of the night. Calvin would score one more prior to the end of the game to give themselves a tenth goal of the game. The final score would be ten-to-four.

Calvin outshot Aquinas 58-34 over the course of three periods. Allman posted 30 saves on 36 shot attempts for an 83.3% save percentage. Johnston managed 16 saves against 19 shots on target for a 84.2% save percentage.

AQ is back in action tomorrow to take on Calvin for the second game of its two-game series. The game is set to begin at 7:30 PM at Eagles Ice Center.