Lawrence hockey had a turbulent trip against the Finlandia Lions. Fans road a rollercoaster of emotions as they followed the team from an OT win Friday night to an absolute bombardment of goals and penalty minutes Saturday night.
Friday night’s festivities started out well enough with a goal by the MCHA’s player of week Kalle Larsson. Finlandia responded by slipping one in unassisted on goalie Andrew Isaac.
The Viking defense held strong the remainder of the first period despite a close call on the Finlandia power play with 4:47 left on the clock.
The period finished with an unsuccessful power play by the Vikings and an amazing back flip by Jon Sacks when he got lit up mid-ice by a Lion.
Blake Royle had a picture-perfect slap shot, assisted by Austin Montgomery 10 feet in from the blue line in the second period.
Finlandia managed to tie up the score 2-2, where it remained the rest of the period. The pace of the period dropped as Lawrence was put on penalty kill three times at the end of the second frame.
The third period started out disappointingly with a sloppy goal by Finlandia. It was our turn for retaliation with a brilliant goal by Masa Takahashi, assisted with a solid pass right outside the net by Billy Siers and Dave Olynyk.
A weak call put white on penalty kill once again with five minutes left in the period. Good hustle supported the kill and Finlandia was unable to score.
After Evan Thornton got leveled by a cross check, Lawrence had an imperative power play with three minutes remaining. Unable to convert, the scoreboard stood at 3-3 as the fans prepared for overtime.
Lawrence’s fate looked dim as Adam Brand took a hooking penalty just 1:26 into OT, but the LU defense was able to kill Finlandia’s power play and at 4:34 Austin Montgomery light that red lamp, defeating Finlandia 4-3.
Friday night’s “There Goes My Hero” tone was turned on its head Saturday night. Lawrence had a remarkable total of 64 penalty minutes. At one point, four of our boys were squeezed into the box at the same time.
The first period started out with nothing but penalty calls on both sides. The game was getting mean as players met each other slashing for slashing call and roughing for roughing call.
Finlandia finally scored on a power play 11 minutes in, and six minutes later they did it again putting the score at 0-2 at the end of the first.
It looked like Lawrence was coming back when Joe Searl scored on a power play early in the second period. In the next 11 minutes, however, the Vikings took 10 minutes worth of penalties.
If you like rough hockey, this was the game for you. We had roughing, elbowing, slashing, boarding calls up the wazoo and, my favorite: misconduct.
Ten-minute majors were handed out to Finlandia and Lawrence’s Adam Brand for a “small” verbal confrontation mid-ice. Larsson joined his teammate one minute later when he, too, received a 10-minute major for misconduct.
By the end of the second period Lawrence was down 1-4.
A 15-minute intermission did nothing to soothe the players. They roared back onto the ice third period with just as much “self-regulating” violence as second period.
Finlandia scored two more goals in the beginning of the third. After Finlandia’s sixth goal, Andrew Isaac was pulled and freshman Pat Greeley was put in to defend the Lawrence net.
The Vikings started to get desperate and the penalty minutes started racking up. The Vikes were on power kill pretty much the remainder of the period. Pat Greeley let in only one more goal on a 5-on-4 halfway through the third period.
When the smoke cleared, the shards of stick picked up, and the blood washed away, the Lions walked away with a 7-1 victory.
Reading period weekend left fans a little unsatisfied. Friday night the Vikings played conference leaders MSOE in their own barn.
The first period ended with two goals in a span of less than a minute by MSOE. The second period proved to be spectacularly uneventful — no goals on either side and only four penalties called.
After a checking-from-behind call on MSOE, Lawrence got their chance with a power play. They were able to convert, trailing by only one. Unfortunately the Vikes weren’t able to come up with one more tick and the horn signaled a 1-2 loss.
Lawrence managed to make a respectable stand against MSOE Friday night but the wheels fell off the bus on Saturday. The two hours and six minutes was torturous for the Viking fans.
By the end of the first period, at 1-2, the game looked like it would shape up a lot like the following night; however, those hopes were dashed in the second period. MSOE got two more goals, both on power plays.
Isaac was pulled 2:32 into the third period, replaced by Greeley who let in two more power play goals for MSOE and picked up a tripping penalty.
Come support the team and especially the seniors when the Vikings play Marian Friday night at 8 p.m.
zVikes 1-3 vs. conference leaders – mcb
