The Lions erupted for seven goals against Davenport in their home opener Saturday afternoon in a 7-1 victory at the Lindenwood Ice Arena in Wentzville, Missouri.

After the first six minutes ticked off the clock without any scoring, Lindenwood took a lead that would not be relinquished when Aapo Nurminen scored on the power play with 13:12 left in the first period.   Austin Wilk and Nick Greene assisted on the goal, which sparked the offense to three more over the following eight minutes.  Alex Kalau found the back of the net just 45 second later, again with the man-advantage, with help from Ryan Carlsson and Tommy Heinzman. 

After the Panthers netted their own power play goal, the Lions struck again at the 10:03 mark when Wilk set up Hayden Dawes.  Wilk earned his third assist of the period with 5:22 remaining on a play started by Nurminen and finished by Mike Lozano.  It was 4-1 after the first 20 minutes.

Lindenwood pulled away in the second with three more goals.  Dawes split the pipes at 8:32, assisted by Heinzman and Lozano, and then freshman Matt Runyon earned his first collegiate goal at 11:29 with help from Jordan Klimovsky.  Davenport went on the power play later in the frame, but the Lions turned the tables with a short-handed score from Nurminen on a play that was set up by Klimovsky and Carlsson.

Despite the lopsided outcome, Lindenwood only outshot the Panthers 37-26, and Michael Hails stopped 25 of the 26 pucks he saw to earn the win in goal.

The Lions improved to 4-0 with the victory.  They'll attempt to sweep Davenport Sunday afternoon in the second game of the series.  The puck drops at 2 p.m. at the Lindenwood Ice Arena in Wentzville, Missouri.