Hoosiers open season, sweep Dayton Fliers

The IU hockey team started the season with a pair of victories this weekend, defeating the University of Dayton Flyers 8-1 Friday and 6-0 Saturday.\nThe Hoosiers struck first Friday when junior forward Frank Harrison backhanded a shot under the stick of Dayton goalie Doug Majkrzak.\nAfter Harrison's tally put the Hoosiers ahead 1-0, a defensive breakout off a face-off created a 2-on-1 rush for IU. Junior forward Clint Heiber deflected the puck into the net with his hand after being brought down on his back, but the goal was disallowed, ruled an intentional motion with the hand. Shortly after, on an IU powerplay, freshman defenseman Bill Ravensberg fired a bullet from the left side that bounced off the right goal post back to Majkrzak.\nMike Piotrowski responded for the Hoosiers during the same powerplay, burying a slap shot from the left side on a screen by Heiber. Coach Rich Holdeman said he was pleased with the immediate response to the two disallowed goals.\n"Any time you get goals taken away, it's a bad thing," Holdeman said. "That kind of thing happens, but we still got a goal on that power play. So in the end, I was happy with that."\nSenior forward Brad Parks added a goal toward the end of the first and IU carried the momentum through the next two periods, scoring four times in the second. Dayton added its only goal of the series in the third period when senior goalie Charlie Pulley lost track of a weak wrist shot that floated over his left shoulder. IU added two in the third to win the game 8-1.\nDayton came to Frank Southern Arena Saturday night with a defensive game plan that held the Hoosiers scoreless through the first period. IU opened the scoring in the second with a powerplay goal early in the sixth minute of the period. The Hoosiers scored three more times before the end of the 10 minute mark, putting four goals on the board in five minutes.\nTwo more goals in the third gave IU a 6-0 victory. Junior goalie Josh Block earned the shutout with 14 saves. IU outshot the Flyers 85-31 for the weekend.\nIU had 19 players with points in the series, an effort Pulley said will be important for the rest of the year.\n"I'm glad to see lots of people to get in on the scoring this weekend," Pulley said. "We showed that lots of different people can score, and we're not dependent on just a few guys to put the puck in the net."\nIU freshmen contributed to the offense, adding three goals and five assists for the series. Freshman forward Micheal Kearns led the rookie surge with a goal and two assists. Kearns said the freshmen on the team understand the importance of their contributions.\n"I think it's extremely important for the freshmen to step up and make up for the loss of production this year," Kearns said. "We came out, and everyone was real excited."\nIU will travel to Champaign next week to take on Division I Illinois. Last year, IU swept Illinois in Bloomington, and Kearns said he hopes the success of the Dayton series will carry over.\n"We got the ball rolling this weekend," Kearns said, "so if we can keep that momentum going into next weekend, that will be really important for us"