MILWAUKEE, Wis. - The men's hockey team can hoist another banner inside Arrington Ice Arena after a 3-1 win at MSOE on Friday night (Feb. 18) as they clinched their fourth straight MCHA regular season title improving to 20-3-1 overall and 17-1-1 in the MCHA. The Bulldogs won the South Division and will earn a bye into the Harris Cup semifinals as the conference's top seed. The Harris Cup will begin March 5 with the finals set for March 6.
Adrian will finish the regular season tomorrow against the Raiders and improved to 16-0-1 all-time against MSOE. Senior goaltender Brad Fogal had a historically night as he became the NCAA Division III all-time wins leader in net. Fogal made 35 saves in one of his best efforts of the season and is now 88-10-2 in his career. Fogal surpassed Kyle Jones of St. Norbert who played from 2002-2005. Fogal sits eighth in NCAA Division III history in goals against average, 12th in save percentage and fourth in win percentage.
The Bulldogs and Raiders entered the contest with identical records and the top ten battle did not disappoint. Adrian ranked fifth in the latest USCHO.com Division III poll got on the board first after a scoreless first period. Senior forward Eric Miller scored at 0:40 of the second period on the power play with assists from Josh Cousineau and Zach Graham. It was Miller's 15th goal of the season and 85th of his career. It was also his sixth power play goal of the season and 29th of his career.
Milwaukee School of Engineering ranked eighth this week tied the game at 1-1 at the 12:17 mark of the second at even strength with assists from Ryno Linder and Carl Lindblad. MSOE had a golden opportunity just a few minutes earlier as Michael Soik attempted a penalty shot which was stopped by Fogal. The second period ended at 1-1 with the Raiders holding a 26-11 edge in shots on goal at that point.
Junior forward Jordan Watts scored the game-winner at 2:31 of the third period at even strength with assists from Joel Workman and Kyle Watson. It was his ninth goal of the season in his first year with the Bulldogs. That goal seemed to give Adrian momentum heading toward the finish as Adrian outshot MSOE, 14-10, in the third to bring the total to 36-25 in favor of the Raiders for the contest.
Adrian killed off two penalties in the third period and all four for the game. AC came into the game as the third-best penalty killing unit in Division III at 89.3 percent. After a Jeremy Klaver holding minor put the Raiders on the power play with 2:04 left, Watson controlled the puck and slipped it into an empty net at the 18:23 mark with an assist from Mike Towns. It was his third goal of the season and 32nd of his career. Adrian has now gone unbeaten in their last 13 games going 12-0-1.
