Men's ACHA DII ice hockey claimed its opener of the Lindenwood Winter Classic by JOG with a 5-3 win over Concordia University of Wisconsin Friday night at the Centene Community Ice Center in Maryland Heights, Missouri. The Lions jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first and had a 4-1 advantage after two before playing the Falcons even in the third.

Brett Robinson opened scoring for Lindenwood at the 4:59 mark on a play set up by Jack Louko and Nick Jones. Just under 10 minutes later, Gavin Delfosse sounded the horn with help from Zachary Schwartz and Logan Millhausen and the Lions had a 2-0 lead at 14:07. Concordia broke the shutout with just 21-seconds remaining in the opening frame, but Lindenwood held a 2-1 advantage at the first intermission.

The Lions built some cushion in the first half of the second. Louko split the pipes off a feed from Jones, his 30^th assist of the season, at 4:32, then the two swapped roles with Jones scoring off a pass from Louko at 9:13. In between those two goals, matching roughing calls set up a four-on-four scenario, but neither team could take advantage. Lindenwood maintained a three-goal lead until the 13:25 mark when an errant pass led to an unassisted effort from the Falcons and it was 4-2 at the second intermission.

Concordia kept its hopes alive with an even-strength goal at 8:42 of the third to pull within one, but the Lions clamped down with an offensive push that was rewarded when Zach Maupin set up Jake Lange at 16:22. Trailing by two, the Falcons tried one last come back with some physical play, but another set of matching minors at 18:54 pretty much stalled those efforts and the clock ran out with a two-goal Lindenwood victory.

The Lions outshot Concordia 56-27 with Justin Grenon stopping 24 of the 27 shots he faced to earn the win in goal. Lindenwood received the only official five-on-four power play and failed to score.

The Lions improved to 26-0 this season and extended a winning streak to 33 dating back to the end of last season. They host Maryville University in their second game of the Lindenwood Winter Classic Saturday night with the opening faceoff scheduled for 6 p.m. at the Centene Community Ice Center.