The Lawrence men’s hockey team had a rough showing versus conference rivals Trine University this weekend, losing both games on Friday and Saturday. Their first showing was some goalie work to behold on both sides; Lawrence and Trine had plenty of chances to score on each other all game. Lawrence had 24 goal shots to Trine’s 31, but junior goalkeeper Evan Cline was able to make 30 saves before Trine defenseman Brad Jenion laid in a shot with less than a minute left in the third period.
With a tough loss already under their belt, the Vikings began Saturday’s faceoff in deep trouble, as the Thunder scored in just 21 seconds. Cline allowed a second Trine shot past him four minutes later, and he was relieved by freshman rookie goalie Brian Tallieu. The change in the position did little to quell Trine’s offense, however, as the Thunder scored three more times on Tallieu before the end of the first period, two of the goals separated by just over a minute. A second switch at goalie occurred at the start of the second period, and sophomore Alex Mosquera excelled at the position, making 26 saves, preventing another Trine score for the rest of the game.
Photos by Caroline Garrow.
Lawrence was unfortunately in too deep, as the score was too difficult to overcome. Freshman Ivan Galaguzov and team captain, senior Jake Drinkard, both sank a shot to cut the lead by two, but Trine’s superior goalie play won the day a second time, and the game ended 5-2. The Vikings may have had significant goalie trouble during Saturday’s game, but better defense before the opposing offense can reach the goalie would consistently keep Lawrence in games. As impeccable as 30 shots without a score might be, the goalie, and the offense’s ability to keep pressure midfield instead of playing catchup around the goal would fare much better if the team could reliably keep him from needing to block as many shots.
The team fell to 0-4 at the end of the weekend, with a 0-2 record in-conference and will look to improve their standings this week against the Aurora University Spartans.