After being shut out on Saturday, women's ACHA ice hockey fell to Midland University 5-3 Sunday afternoon at the Sidner Ice Arena in Fremont, Nebraska. The Lions trailed 4-1 midway through the game and battled back to within a goal in the opening moments of the final period, but could not get any closer.
The Lindenwood defense held the Warriors scoreless in the opening 13-minutes of the first, but gave up to unassisted goals in the final 6:32. Midland added a short-handed score at 4:35 of the second before
Loki Antonio netted a shot for the Lions, assisted by
MacKenzie Drost and
Annika Asplundh, to make it 3-1 at the 8:59 mark, but the Warriors answered just under four-minutes later to re-establish their three-goal advantage.
Midland was called for a tripping penalty with 4:09 remaining in the period and
Ava Bilton capitalized with her first career Lindenwood goal just 11-seconds later on a play set up by Asplundh and Drost. The Lions continued to battle into the third and pulled to within one when Antonio sounded the horn for her second of the game off an
Ardyn Hawryshko pass at 7:55, but too much time being short-handed due to 11-minutes of penalties kept Lindenwood in a defensive mode, making it difficult to maintain any consistent offensive pressure. The Warriors added the final blow with 7:26 remaining in regulation.
The Lions only managed 12 total shots on goal in the game while yielding 44 to Midland.
Emily McDonald did her best to keep Lindenwood in the game as she stopped 39 of the 44 pucks she faced. The Lions went 1/3 on the power play while holding the Warriors scoreless on four official man-advantage chances.
With the loss, Lindenwood dropped to 4-8-1 in the Women's Midwest College Hockey (WMCH) conference and to 5-13-1 overall. The Lions will continue to search for their first win of calendar 2023 when they travel to Minot, North Dakota for a two-game WMCH series against Minot State February 10-11. The opening faceoff is scheduled for 3:45 p.m. Friday afternoon and at 2:45 p.m. Saturday afternoon at the MAYSA Arena.
