This past Friday, November 18^th, UC San Diego Ice Hockey played their first home game of the season at KROC center against opponents Cal State Fullerton. The Tritons came out hard and fast, scoring quickly and getting on the board first. But Fullerton was quick to respond and retaliated with a goal of their own to even the score. Soon after they followed their first goal up with a second one, to move the score to 2-1. The Tritons pressed to even the score, when a controversial call by the referee caused one of the Tritons, Liam Jablonski, to be given a 5 minute major and expulsion from the game for an accidental hit from behind when he caught his opponent turning at the wrong moment. CSU Fullerton seized on this opportunity and pressed hard on the Tritons, and after a hard fought 3 ½ minutes of penalty kill, Fullerton broke through with a goal to make it 3-1. Exhausted from the 5 minutes of PK, and now down a man, the Tritons couldn’t keep up with Fullerton and thus allowed them to slip in 2 more goals before the period break to make the score 5-1. The Tritons regrouped during the brief break and came out determined in the second period, holding them scoreless for the entire 20 minutes. Sadly the Tritons couldn’t break through Fullerton’s defensive system and goaltending, and also failed to score, ending the second period with 0 goals for either side. With a third period break, the Tritons came out to try and press Fullerton, but Fullerton themselves came out with renewed vigor as they sought to wrap the game up nicely. After a turnover at the blue line, Fullerton ended up with a 3 on 0 break away and passed it back and forth before slipping it passed an outstretched Ryan Jensen and into the back of the net. With that UC San Diego was pushed back, and Fullerton wrapped up the game with a few more goals making the final score 9-1. It was a tough game for the Tritons, as they were forced to look back and lick their wounds. They hope to work on their game and build up this relatively new team of players as they look ahead towards the rest of their season.