(paul wilke)
The Lawrence University men’s hockey team lost twice Friday and Saturday against conference foe Milwaukee School of Engineering, bringing the team’s losing streak to five games. The Vikings have been outscored 30-10 in the five-game stretch.
Sophomore Chris Sims, who scored his first collegiate goal last week, commented, “It’s hard to win when you don’t score goals, but it’s even harder to win when you combine that with poor defense.”
The Vikings, who were receiving national attention earlier in the season, have gone 1-9-1 in their past 11 games after starting the season 6-1. The latest two losses came at the hands of MSOE (10-8-1, 9-5-0 MCHA) in a home-and-home series.
The Vikings struggled out of the gate in the series, being shut out in the first game despite holding a 33-31 advantage in shots. Lawrence, however, had twice as many penalties as the opponents, which led to three power-play goals for the Raiders. MSOE skated away with an easy 5-0 victory.
The Vikings came out with more intensity in the second game of the series, and were able to hold a 2-1 lead until late in the second period. Sophomore Matt Hughes and freshman Brad Scurfield scored the goals for Lawrence, while junior forward Scott Minarcik notched an assist on each of the two goals.
However, MSOE would respond with a game-tying goal in the last 30 seconds of the period, and the Raiders scored another goal with less than 90 seconds remaining in the game to seal the victory.
Lawrence skated with a man advantage for the last minute after pulling goalie Evan Johnson, but could not force overtime as the clock ran out with MSOE holding on to a 3-2 lead.
The Vikings (7-10-1, 6-6-1 MCHA) will try to get back on track when they travel to Northland College for a pair of games next weekend.
(paul wilke)