The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets headed north to Fort Wayne to begin their quest for the ACHA Division III Championship. Game one was played on Wed Feb 28th and Tech drew the strong Northwood College team from Michigan. This uphill battle started out very well for the Jackets as they held the high scoring Northwood team scoreless in the first period. The defense was strong for both teams and Tech also to fail to score in period one. Tech finally broke the goal drought with a great give an go goal by Christian Gatung with 9 minutes into period two. Assist went to Drew Baker and Brendan O’Leary. The one goal held up until 7 minutes left in the period as Northwood scored on a power play goal. The second period ended in a 1-1 tie.

But then, the flood gates opened for the offense. A total 0f 10 goals were scored in period three. Northwood scored 4 straight goals in a span of 7 minutes until Tech got on the board on a goal by Tom Porter with an assist from Pat Kelly. Northwood came right back 20 seconds later with a quick goal to take a 6-2 lead. But the Jackets didn’t give up and scored on a 5-3 power play goal by Porter with assist to Mike Zaucha and Arne Krogh. Thirty seconds later, still on a 5-4 power play, Porter got the hat trick on a scramble in front of the net that was pushed in by the Northwood goalie. The quick two goals gave Tech momentum and ready to attack, but their aggressive posture opened up a quick and easy odd man rush that gave Northwood their seventh goal just 20o seconds later. Northwood got their final goal on a 4-3 man advantage with 3 minutes left in the contest.

Yellow Jackets Craig Tabita made some fantastic saves in the first two periods, but some defensive lapses proved costly in period three.