The roller hockey Black squad split four games at the Midwest Collegiate Roller Hockey League regular season event January 25-26 at Midwest Sport Hockey in Manchester, Missouri. The Lions started the weekend with a convincing 16-0 shutout of the Purdue AA team Saturday afternoon, followed with a 7-3 victory over St. Louis Community College, then fell to Purdue D3 6-5 in overtime. On Sunday, Lindenwood played a single contest, losing to the University of Colorado D3 7-3.
In the victory against the Boilermakers, the Lions bolted out of the gate with seven goals in the first period, then added four in the second and five in the third.
Nolan Lawrenz led the Lindenwood offense with nine points on two hat tricks and three assists and received Star No. 1 honors for his efforts.
Matthew Brandon earned Star No. 2 recognition with four goals and two assists.
Carter Crow was named Star No. 3 with two goals and an assist.
Ethan Erlewein,
Dylan Pritchett,
Tristan Zeik, and
Michael McComb each added single tallies while
Caden McGuirk and Niko Scott each assisted on two goals, Scott doing so from the goaltending position.
Corinna Weimann also earned an assist to help the Lions cause. Lindenwood outshot Purdue 33-8 and Scott stopped the eight shots he faced to earn the victory.
In the game against the Archers, the Lions jumped in front with three in the opening 12 minutes. Lawrenz scored the first two and then Zelk added an unassisted effort later in the period. Despite outshooting St. Louis Community College 17 to eight in the second, Lindenwood only added one goal and it actually came on the penalty kill when Erlewein sounded the horn shorthanded off a feed from Nicholas Wolfmeier. The Lions increased the margin to 6-0 with two power play goals in the opening five minutes of the third, but then the Archers mounted a bit of a comeback. Their first score came on the power play, then they added an even-strength goal just 17-seconds later to make it 6-2. After Lawrenz scored his fourth of the contest, St. Louis Community College answered to make it 7-3, but that proved to be the final score.
Lindenwood outshot the Archers 34-21 and
Jonathan Chappell stopped 18 of the 21 shots he faced to earn the victory in goal. Lawrenz earned Star No. 1 honors with his four goals and one assist, Erlewein was named Star No. 2 with a goal and an assist, and Weimann received Star No. 3 recognition with a goal and assist.
The Lions had to mount a furious rally in the third to force overtime against the Purdue D3 team, but eventually lost in the ninth minute of the extra session.
Lawrenz put Lindenwood in front early in the first of a pass from
Carter Crow, but the Boilermakers responded with the next two, the first coming on a power play. With Purdue leading 2-1, Lawrenz tied it on an unassisted play at the 7:49 mark, but the Boilermakers regained a one goal margin on their own power play with 32-seconds remaining.
After the flurry of offense in the opening period, the second was characterized by solid defense. Only 13 shots were attempted by both offenses combined and no pucks hit the back of the cage, but that changed quickly in the third. Purdue made it 4-2 in the first 43 seconds, and it remained that score until the midpoint of the period when Lawrenz struck for back-to-back goals to tie the contest at four. Action continued when just over a minute later, the Boilermakers stole the puck and netted a shot to make it 5-4 with 3:34 remaining in regulation, but the Lions only needed another 25-seconds to knot things up. Erlewein set up Lawrenz for his fifth of the game. The remaining time ran out in the third and set up the overtime heroics from Purdue.
The Boilermakers outshot Lindenwood 31-25 and Chappell stopped 25 of the 31 shots he faced in a losing effort. Lawrenz did earn Star No. 1 honors with his five goals, but the other stars went to Purdue players.
The Black squad wrapped up the MCRHL weekend with a tough 7-3 loss to the Colorado D3 team Sunday morning. After taking a 2-1 lead in the first 12-minutes, the Buffaloes scored the next four to take control.
Lawrenz gave the Lions a 1-0 advantage at the 2:21 mark of the first on a play set up by Zeik and Weimann. After Colorado tied it about two minutes later, Lawrenz struck again at 8:30 with help from
Matthew Brandon. Despite outshooting Lindenwood by just a 15-13 margin, the Buffaloes outscored the Lions 2-0 in the second. The first came at the midway point of the period and the second with just 10-seconds remaining to take the lead, one that would not be relinquished.
Colorado blitzed Lindenwood early in the third scoring goals at the 36-second and 45-second marks. Joshua Collins stopped the bleeding momentarily at 7:01 to cut the lead back to two, but the Buffaloes sealed the victory with two more in the final five minutes.
Colorado outshot the Lions 39-34 and Scott stopped 32 of the 39 shots he faced in the loss.
With the four-game split, the Black squad is now 4-4 overall and in the MCRHL. After a weekend off, the Lions return to the rink for the final MCRHL regular season event on February 8 at Midwest Sport Hockey in Manchester, Missouri.
