ANNAPOLIS, MD (Friday, January 4, 2008) -- Navy's ice hockey team needed two periods to shake off the cobwebs from a five-week layoff, then gave the University of Delaware all it could handle in the third period before finally succumbing to the Blue Hens, 8-5, in an Eastern States Collegiate Hockey League (ESCHL) game Friday night at the McMullen Hockey Arena.

With the loss, the Midshipmen fell to 6-14-0 overall and 1-12-0 in the ESCHL. Delaware, meanwhile, improved to 16-4-1 overall and 9-3-1 in the league.

The same two teams battle Saturday night at 5 p.m. at the Fred Rust Arena adjacent to the University of Delaware campus.

Although Navy drew first blood Friday night, getting a goal from Matt Swezey at the 7:30 mark of the first period, the Mids eventually fell behind 4-1 thanks to four consecutive, unanswered Delaware goals near the end of the first period and the start of the second stanza.

Navy cut the Blue Hen advantage to 4-2 on the strength of an Alex Wallis tally at 17:24 of the second period, but once again Delaware went on a scoring streak, picking up three consecutive goals to take a commanding 7-2 lead early in the third period.

The Mids then rallied to make a game of it, picking up goals from Jeff Martin, Matt Keller, and John Patrick Culliton during a nine-minute span in the third period to pull Navy within 7-5.

But Delaware rebounded with a Joe Baumgartner goal with just six minutes left in the game to close out the scoring and enable the Blue Hens to escape from the McMullen Arena with the 8-5 victory.

Navy netminder Eric Anderson was credited with 27 saves on 34 Delaware shots in the game’s first 43:11 until he was replaced by fellow sophomore Jeremey Estevez.  Estevez recorded eight saves on nine UD shots during his 16:07 between the pipes.

Annapolis native Jimmy Depfer made 21 saves on 24 shots in 44:24 minutes of action for the Blue Hens, while back-up Delaware goaltender Nicholas Matarese recorded 10 saves out of 12 shots during his 15:36 of action.

SCORING SUMMARY

Delaware          2          3          3          -           8

NAVY             1          1          3          -           5

First Period

N – Swezey (Wallis, Daniel) 7:30

D – Rotundo (Bailey, Sexton) 11:55

D – Wehrenberg (Gardner, Marttinen) 16:37

Second Period

D – Baumgartner (unassisted) 4:41 (sh)

D – Sexton (Gardner, Wehrenberg) 11:27 (pp)

N – Wallis (Daniel, Swezey) 17:24

D – Weiner (Rotundo, Lankelis) 19:44 (pp)

Third Period

D – Gardner (Wehrenberg, Sexton) 1:01 (pp)

D – Rotundo (Lombardi, Bailey) 1:43

N – Martin (Gross, Anliker) 4:24

N – Keller (Bowen, Westerman) 10:45

N – Culliton (Gross, Heitman) 13:20

D – Baumgartner (Wehrenberg, Sexton) 14:00 (pp)