The upset bug did not take too long before sweeiping through the first day of competition at the 2002 ACHA National Tournament yesterday. Early action saw No. 4 Ohio fall 4-2 in a controversial game to No. 9 Michigan Dearborn. No. 11 Arizona's shocking 4-3 overtime victory over No. 2 Delaware followed.

It appeared midway through the first day that the No. 1 Icers would have an easy road to the their third straight championship. However, the Icers had problems of the own against No. 12 Drexel, but escaped with a 2-1 victory.

"I know a lot of the (Drexel ) guys," Icers forward Sean Waters said. "You have to give them a lot of credit — they came to play."

It was the Icers who were playing well early and appeared ready to coast to victory, as Waters scored just over three minutes in. From there the Icers would dominate play, and saw their lead increase to 2-0 on a power play goal by forward Glenn Zuck.

"I though when we got up two nothing we let up a little bit," goalie Geoff Beauparlant said.

They left the door open for the Dragons, who slid through with their first goal with just 33 seconds remaining in the period. From there they would never go away.

"No, I did not think (they would be able to stay with us so long)," Waters said. "They have a lot of tough gritty guys. We have more talent, but they had more gritty guys."

The Dragons used their grit and determination to hang with the Icers the rest of the way thanks to their goalie, Dan Angeline. He turned aside all 11 Icers shots in the second and his team managed to kill off both Icer power plays.

Beauparlant was the difference in 2-1 game, which the Icers were fortuniate to win.

"You hear about the games with Delaware and Ohio going down early and you have to worry about yourself," Beauparlant said. "We got the job done and we got the win."