The Great Plains Collegiate Inline Hockey League GPCIHL) Regional Championship best-of-three series went the distance, but Lindenwood came up short February 22-23 at Midwest Sport Hockey in Ballwin, Missouri.  The Lions were upended by Bethel (Tenn.) in overtime 5-4 on Friday, rebounded for a 6-4 victory on Saturday afternoon, but then fell 4-2 Saturday evening.

In the opening game of the series, the Wildcats stifled the Lindenwood offense, outshooting the Lions 27-16.  Despite the limited number of shots, Lindenwood opened up a two-goal lead early in the final period, but Bethel rallied late to send the contest to overtime.  It was obvious that the Wildcats came to play when they scored just 1:26 into the first, but the Lions rallied for the next three, the first coming just over two minutes later off the blade of Joe Fordyce.  Chris Visico buried the puck on a power play chance at 10:02, and then Sam Koenig split the pipes 27 seconds later at even strength and Lindenwood carried a 3-1 advantage into the second.  Bethel scored in the latter half of the period unassisted to cut the lead in half, but the Lions regained the two-goal advantage at 3:17 in the third on a shot from Max Romanowicz.  The Wildcats took over from there with another unassisted play at 3:40 and then a game-tying power play goal at 7:26.  The comeback was completed at 3:15 of overtime.

Lindenwood looked more like Lindenwood in the second game of the series, but Bethel scored first once again to take an early 1-0 lead.  The Lions drew a penalty and capitalized early in the second when Joey Rosa split the pipes at the 00:37 second mark.  DellaMorte gave Lindenwood a 2-1 lead just over three minutes later, but the Wildcats responded with back-to-back power play goals to go ahead 3-2 at the end of the second.  The Lions owned the final frame, though.  Brycon Johnson tied the contest on the power play at the 2:11 mark, then Visico went back-to-back at 4:27 and 8:22 to extend the margin to 5-3.  Bethel cut into the lead with just under a minute remaining, but Lindenwood finished off the game with an empty-netter from Visico, who earned Star #1 honors with his hat trick.  DellaMorte was named Star #3 with a goal and an assist.  Paul Town earned the win in goal with 19 saves on 23 shots as the Lions outshot the Wildcats 34-23 and set up a winner-take-all game three.

Lindenwood was ready for Bethel Saturday night, but Wildcat goaltender, and eventual Star #1, Jimmy Teed put his team on his back.  The Lions peppered him with 51 shots, but he only let two pucks hit the back of the net.  Unlike the first two games of the series, Lindenwood scored first on a Rosa drive midway through the first, but Bethel answered with just over three minutes left in the period to make it 1-1.  The Wildcats took the lead early in the second, but Tyler Watson tied it for the Lions just under a minute later.  It looked like the period would end in a 2-2 tie, but Bethel snuck one past Town with only 27 second left.  The Wildcats added another score midway through the third and meanwhile, Lindenwood put 25 shots on goal in the final period in an effort to make up ground, but Teed stood on his head.  The Lions outshot Bethel 51-28 and Town stopped 24 of the 28 shots he faced to take the hard-luck loss.

With the series loss, Lindenwood dropped to 16-2 on the season and failed to claim the automatic bid to the National Collegiate Roller Hockey Association (NCRHA) National Championships.  The Lions will await an at-large selection to the event which is scheduled for April 10-14 at Bill Gray's IcePlex in Rochester, New York.