The Lawrence University hockey team (6-12-1, 5-7-0 NCHA) spent last weekend in Duluth, MN, challenging the College of Saint Scholastica (10-7-2, 7-4-1 NCHA) in a pair of conference games.
The Vikings were looking to continue the success they found in the previous weekend’s victory against MSOE. Despite playing hard, the Vikings came up short and emerged with two losses.
On Friday, Jan. 23, the Saints welcomed the Vikings to the Mars Lakeview Arena for the first game of the series. Lawrence got on the board first with a power play goal 12:47 into the first period.
Junior Brandon Boelter scored first off assists from freshman Brad Mueller and junior Matt Moore, but the Saints were able to fire in a goal of their own before the first intermission, tying the score at 1-1.
The momentum shifted definitively in the second period. The Saints scored twice in the first few minutes of the period, pulling ahead 3-1.
A 5-minute penalty called on the Vikings led to a long power play opportunity for the Saints, which they capitalized on twice in the span of 30 seconds. Several more penalties by both sides were served over the rest of the game until the Saints scored a final goal with about 5 minutes remaining in the third period, bringing the final score to 6-1 in the Saints’ favor.
On Saturday, the Vikings returned to the ice ready to put up a fight. Again, they seized an early lead when senior Tom Lee scored off a rebound from fellow senior Cory Bastian 7:54 into the first period. A few minutes later, sophomore Blake Roubos sent in another for the Vikings off assists from junior Ryan Rumble and senior Gustav Lindgren to widen the lead.
As they often do, the Vikings spent a lot of time on the penalty kill and thus gave up a few key goals. The Saints scored a power play goal at the end of the first period and another halfway through the second, along with an unassisted shorthanded goal at the very beginning of the second as a result of an unlucky breakaway.
Going into the third down just 3-2, the Vikings couldn’t quite find the net for a second chance. The Saints slipped in one more to clinch a 4-2 win.
With 10 points the Vikings are sitting 6th in the conference, 2 points behind MSOE and 5 points from earning home ice for the first round of playoffs. This weekend the Vikings face No. 15 Lake Forest College (11-3-5, 9-2-1 NCHA) in another conference series.
Lawrence will host the Foresters at the Appleton Family Ice Center on Friday, Jan. 30, at 7 p.m. The series will continue at the Alumni Memorial Fieldhouse in Lake Forest the following night.