Men's ACHA Division II hockey capped off a 3-0 weekend at the Lindenwood Showcase with a thrilling 5-4, nine-round, shootout victory over Florida Gulf Coast Sunday afternoon at the Centene Community Ice Center in Maryland Heights, Missouri. The Lions took a 4-1 lead early in the second period only to see the Eagles storm back to tie the contest 11 minutes later.
Josh Linn gave Lindenwood an early advantage off a pass from
RJ Hart at 3:56 of the first.
Stanley Lucas doubled the lead with 11:49 remaining on a nice feed from
Chase McClellan. After Florida Gulf Coast scored to make it 2-1,
Seamus Radley sounded the horn on the power play with help from Hart and
Ryan Granville with 2:06 left in the period.
Bradley Rupp gave the Lions a three-goal lead on an even strength effort at the 2:14 mark of the second, assisted by McMahon and Linn and it looked like Lindenwood was taking control, but the Eagles switched netminders and then scored the next three, the first at 8:31 of the period. They followed with a power play goal at 12:36 and another even strength marker at 13:29 to make it 4-4. That's where things remained for the rest of the second, all of the third, and through the extra overtime session, setting up what proved to be some shootout heroics from McMahon and goaltender
Ethan Paulin-Hatch.
The Lions sent Linn, Lucas, and Radley over the boards for the first three shots, but none of them went in. Paulin-Hatch did his part by keeping Florida Gulf Coast from scoring as well. As the shootout went into sudden death, another five Lindenwood players attempted to find the back of the net including
Declan Carter,
Michael Mullen,
Steve Avalone, Hart, and
Sean Wagner, but they all came up empty. Paulin-Hatch continued to stonewall the Eagles, setting up a clinching round nine. After Florida Gulf Coast was turned away, McMahon sent the hometown fans home happy with the game-winner.
The Lions outshot the Eagles 40-28 in regulation and the overtime period. Paulin-Hatch stopped 24 of the 28 shots he faced prior to the shootout, then prevented another nine shots from getting past him in the shootout to earn the victory in goal.
In their middle game at the Lindenwood Showcase, the Lions prevailed 4-2 over Marian (Wisc.) University Saturday night. It was a close contest through the first 40-minutes before Lindenwood put two on the board in the third.
After the Sabres took a 1-0 lead at 12:50 in the opening frame, Lindenwood answered when Lucas put the puck on the blade of McMahon with 5:13 remaining. It was tied 1-1 after one. The two teams exchanged goals again in the second. Radley popped the water bottle with help from
Praveen Dhaliwal and Granville at 14:05, but Marian capitalized on a power play just under three minutes later and it was 2-2.
Trent Sylvester scored what proved to be the game-winner at the 5:06 mark of the third, but the contest clincher came from Granville short-handed and unassisted at 10:24.
The Lions outshot the Sabres 37-21 and
Michael Errico made 19 saves on the 21 pucks he faced to earn the win in goal.
With the two victories, Lindenwood improved to 6-1-0 overall. Men's ACHA Division II hockey hits the road for a trip north to play the University of Mary October 21-22. The opening faceoff is set for 7 p.m. both Friday and Saturday night at the Mandan Ice Arena in Mandan, North Dakota.
