UTICA, NY- The nationally ranked No. 6/7 Utica College men's hockey team dropped its season opener to visiting #3/3 Adrian College 3-1 in non-conference action Friday night at the Adirondack Bank Center.
 
After a scoreless first period, the Pioneers struck first as freshman Tyler Dill (South Lake Tahoe, CA/Charlotte Rush (USPHL-Premier)) put in his first collegiate goal at 9:08 to break the deadlock.  After Shawn Lynch (Syracuse, NY/Ottawa Jr. Senators (CCHL)) drove to the net, the rebound popped out to Dill who was able to get a piece of it and put the puck over the goal line.  Jarrod Fitzpatrick (Wakefield, MA/Northern Cyclones (EHL)) also assisted on the go-ahead goal.
 
The Bulldogs were finally able to solve junior goalie Gianluca Baggetta (Maple, Ontario/North York (OJHL)), who was rock solid all evening, at the 3:25 mark of the third period as Jared Domin put in a feed from Austin Bottrell and Dino Balsamo for his first of the year.
 
Adrian struck again at 10:10 of the third when Bottrell deflected a shot from the point that beat Baggetta through the five hole to give the Bulldogs their first lead of the game. The visitors tacked on an empty net tally in the final minute to ice the game.
 
Utica was 0-for-4 on the power play, while the Bulldogs were 0-for-2 on the man advantage.  Baggetta made 36 saves in just over 50 minutes of work before he went down with an injury.  Freshman Sean Dickson (Millbrae, CA/Hampton Roads Whalers (USPHL-Premier)) stopped all five shots he faced in relief.  Adrian's Kevin Entmaa had 27 saves for the Bulldogs.
 
The teams will wrap up the weekend series on Saturday.  Game time is scheduled for 5 p.m.