Naperville, Ill. - DePauw and North Central battled through a tight first half, but the host Cardinals pulled away in the second half for a 17-8 victory over the Tigers. DePauw dropped to 1-2, while North Central improved to 2-0.

North Central jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first before Jack Flynn put the Tigers on the board with 3:33 left in the opening frame. The Cardinals tacked on two more before Connor Gibson scored at the 10:31 mark of the second.

Following a North Central goal, DePauw closed to within one on scores by Flynn and Gibson, but the hosts beat the first half buzzer to take a 6-4 lead into the intermission.

The teams traded goals to start the third with Gibson delivering for the Tigers before the Cardinals scored three straight in a 1:09 stretch to extend their lead to 10-5. Gavin Berry's man-up score with 43 seconds left in the third cut the margin to four.

After the teams again exchanged scores including Berry's second goal, North Central scored the next four to put the contest out of reach. Flynn ended the run before the Cardinals added two more scores.

Gibson and Flynn each scored three with Berry totaling two. Anthony Reinhardt finished with 14 saves for the Tigers. Charlie Rodriguez had three ground balls and Matthew Garrigan caused five turnovers.

Tom Eberhardt paced North Central with five goals, while Luke Illgen followed with four along with a team-high four assists. Aidan Murphy stopped 17 DePauw shots. Evan Watanabe and Zach Kuyava each had six ground balls.

North Central outshot DePauw, 42-38, including 31-25 edge in shots on goal. The Cardinals won 16 of the 26 faceoffs and led in ground balls, 20-16. DePauw committed nine turnovers to the Cardinals' 11.

DePauw hosts Anderson at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, March 6.