BUZZARDS BAY, Mass -- The Buccaneers hosted Norwich in their annual non-conference matchup on Wednesday evening which was also the Bucs home opener. A back and forth game, an explosion of goals in the third quarter and four goals from the Buccaneers in the fourth quarter led to a huge 15-12 victory for Maritime.

The Basics

Final: Buccaneers 15, Cadets 12

Records: Maritime (2-0)

               Norwich (1-2)

Between The Pipes

Maritime: John Aidonidis (W, 2-0): 6 sv | 12 ga | 18 sh | 60 min

Norwich: Thomas Kelliher (L, 0-2): 11 sv | 15 ga | 26 sh | 60 min

In The Field

Maritime

• Freshman Ryan McDonough led all players with five goals.
• Senior Captain Mitchell Maida scored four times in the win.
• Freshman Cooper Barrett scored three times.
• Braeden Kosiwicz scored twice and Gage Coolahan scored once to round out the scoring.
• Freshman Daniel Kane recorded a game-high four assists.
• McDonough tallied two helpers.
• Maida, Barrett and Doug Walker all had one assist.
• Faceoff man Brian Rosher won 22-of-30 faceoffs and led all players with eight ground balls.
• Senior Captain Leo Allgaier picked up five ground balls.
• Defensively, Allgaier caused two turnovers to lead the Bucs. Six other players caused turnovers in the game.
• Maritime finished the game with 43 ground balls, were successful on 15-of-19 clears, won 22-of-30 faceoffs, and took 54 shots.

Norwich

• Coley Bagwell led the Cadets offensively with four scores.
• Tyler Seidel and Mitchell McKay each scored three times.
• Duncan Youngclaus and Liam Conneely each tallied one score.
• Matt Meehan recorded four assists, Alex Johnston tallied three and Matthew Hannon had one assist.
• Thomas Muraski won 8-of-28 faceoffs.
• Mason McMahon had four ground balls to lead the Cadets in that category.
• Defensively, McMahon caused a game-high four turnovers and Joshua McQuinn caused three.
• Norwich finished the game with 18 ground balls, were successful on 22-of-24 clears, won 8-of-30 faceoffs, and took 35 shots.

How It Happened

We had another instant classic between Maritime and Norwich on our hands on Wednesday and the scoring party started early. McDonough put the Bucs on top 45 seconds in with his first goal. Norwich scored four minutes later to tie the game at 1-1. The game went eight minutes before the next goal came from Norwich from the stick of Youngclaus to give the Cadets a 2-1 lead that they would take to the end of the first quarter.

To open the second, McDonough scored his second for the Bucs 55 seconds in to tie the game. Bagwell bagged his first at 12:40 to give Norwich another one-goal advantage. At 11:08, Barrett scored from Walker to tie the game at 3-3. Norwich turned on the jets in the middle of the second with three straight goals. The first came from Conneely at 7:43, the second from McKay at 5:18, and the third from Bagwell at 2:18 to give the Cadets a commanding 6-3 lead. In the final two minutes of the half, Maritime scored twice, once from Maida at 1:34 and the second from Coolahan with 19 ticks left on the clock. At the half, Maritime trailed, 6-5.

If you thought eight goals in the second quarter was exciting, the teams outdid themselves in the third scoring 10 combined goals. The bucs started it off with goals from Barrett 54 second in and another from Maida at 12:33 to take the lead, their second of the game and first since the first quarter. Seidel netted one for Norwich to tie the game up at 7-7 with 11:39 left in the third. Maritime scored back-to-back goals at 11:20 and 50 seconds later at 10:30 on goals from Maida and Barrett to take their biggest lead of the night, 9-7. Norwich didn't go away as they scored two at 9:25 from Bagwell and a power play goal from McKay at 7:35. Tied at 9-9, Barrett scored again to put the Bucs back up by one. Then, on a power play for Maritime, Bagwell scored a shorthanded goal at the 4:12 mark to tie the game once again, at 10-10. McDonough got in one more in the third at 2:25 to give the Buccaneers an 11-10 lead going into the fourth.

In the final quarter of play it was all Maritime as they would go on to outscore the Cadets 4-2. McDonough scored the first two of the quarter at 12:55 and 7:29 from Barrett and Maida respectively. Kosiewicz added a powerplay goal at 7:00 to give the Bucs a four-goal, 14-10, advantage. At 6:20, Maida scored his and the Bucs final goal of the game. With a big cushion at 15-10, Norwich scored the final two goals of the game in desperation time, both from Seidel with 29 seconds and eight second left. Unable to complete a comeback bid, the Bucs earned the victory, 15-12, over their fierce rivals from Vermont.

What's Next

The Buccaneers will host Maine Maritime in the Admiral's Cup game on Saturday, March 11th at 12pm at Clean Harbors Stadium.