The St. Thomas Aquinas College Ice Hockey team opened the 2018-19 home portion of their schedule on Friday evening, earning a 6-4 victory over Columbia University at Sport-O-Rama Ice Rinks.

In the opening period, the Spartans lit the lamp four separate times on the strength of goals by Patrick Burns (4:15), Tyler Brooks (6:03), Giancarlo DiLorenzo (11:16) and Zachary Teats (14:04), making it a 4-0 STAC advantage at the end of first.

Second period action saw St. Thomas Aquinas tally two additional times, as Teats picked up his second of the game and Shaun Benson then deposited the puck into the back of the Lions net just a minute later, pushing the score to 6-0 in favor of the Spartans. However, Columbia was finally able to break the shutout on a goal by Mark Matthews with just under six and a half minutes left to play in the middle frame, making it a 6-1 game after two periods.

Columbia University used the third period to try and mount a comeback, as the Lions scored three times in the final stanza on goals by Tomas Kiss-Farango (5:35), Andy Dunn (9:22) and Sean Lawrence (9:34). However, the Spartans held off any additional Columbia offensive barrage, and closed out the final frame, giving the maroon and gold their first win of the season.

Spartan Goalie Carl Lorenz (W, 1-1) made 34 saves to pick up his first victory of the campaign.

Shots on goal for the game were 33 for St. Thomas Aquinas and 38 for Columbia University. 

STAC returns to action on Sunday evening when they travel to the Ice Hutch in Mount Vernon for a 5pm matchup with the defending MCHC Champion Fordham University Rams.