ADRIAN, Mich.--With their backs against the proverbial wall, the nationally-ranked Adrian College Bulldogs men's hockey team dug deep and struck often in the early going to whip visiting MSOE, 7-1, to equal their Northern Collegiate Hockey Association Harris Cup Quarterfinals series on Saturday at one-game apiece and then eliminated the Raiders in the mini-game, 2-0, to advance to the tournament semifinals next weekend.

THE BASICS
= Final Score: Adrian College 7, Milwaukee School of Engineering 1 (Bulldogs also win mini-game, 2-0, to win the series)

= Location: Arrington Ice Arena; Adrian, Mich.

= Records: No. 1 NCHA-South seed Adrian Bulldogs 19-7-1 overall; No. 4 NCHA-South seed MSOE Raiders 10-13-4 overall

= National Rankings: Adrian--#8 in United States College Hockey Online (172 points) and #8 in D3hockey.com (166) polls; No. 7 in NCAA PairWise

TOP 'DAWGS
= Senior team captain Cory Dunn recorded a career-high-tying four assists.

= Junior Dino Balsamo scored a pair of goals and added an assist. He also went 7-for-12 in the face-off dot.

= Classmate Joey Colatarci notched two assists from his defensive position.

= Freshmen Austin Bottrell, Brandon Marinelli and senior Braden Hellems also enjoyed multi-point games with a goal and assist apiece.

= Senior Connor Armour led all players with 11 face-off victories.

= Senior goalie Kevin Entmaa (15-5-1) made 12 stops.

THE OPPOSITION
= Nick Redmon tallied MSOE's lone goal late in the game.

= David Marabella was credited with an assist on the play.

= Adam Czarnecki led the team in face-off efficiency at 6-for-10 while Marabella had a MSOE-best eight face-offs wins.

= Rock Boynton (L, 10-10-3) took the loss while making eight saves on 12 shots and Harry Vangellow played the final 40 minutes with 16 saves on 19 shots faced.

HOW IT HAPPENED
= In the decisive 20-minute mini-game, Dunn broke a scoreless tie with 3 minutes and 24 seconds remaining and senior Trevor Boyd added some insurance with an empty-net goal.

= But to get to that point, Adrian jumped on MSOE in the regulation game by scoring four goals--junior Bryce Van Horn, Hellems and Balsamo twice--in a span of almost 13 minutes to take a commanding 4-0 lead after the first period.

= The Bulldogs added to their offensive outburst with three goals in the second period: Bottrell at 2:06, Marinelli at 6:43 and senior Bryan Yim at 13:02.

= Adrian held a huge 31 to 13 shots on goal advantage, including a 12-4 margin in the important first period.

= The Bulldogs were 2-for-6 on the power play while the penalty kill unit was successful in all three MSOE man-advantage chances.

= Redmon spoiled Entmaa's shutout bid with 10 seconds remaining in the contest.

= Adrian killed off a 5-on-3 MSOE power play for 64 seconds in the first period when Entmaa made five saves, maintaining Adrian's 1-0 lead at the time.

BEYOND THE BOX SCORE
= Per NCAA rules, all statistics in the mini-game do not count toward the teams' statistics or records.

= Dunn surpassed Sam Kuzyk (59g 67a=126p from 2007-10) for 11th place on the Adrian all-time scoring chart with 23+104=127 totals. Dunn also now stands fifth on the Bulldogs career assists list.

= Hellems now has eight power play goals in a season--10th in an AC single season.

UP NEXT
= Adrian will host NCHA South No. 2 seed Lake Forest--which beat Aurora 4-2, lost 5-1 and won 2-1 in an OT mini-game--on Saturday. Game time and ticket information to be announced later.

#TheBrotherhood #AdrianBulldogs #GoDawgs #BulldogProud #TraditionNeverDies

MINI-GAME SCORESHEET

Scoring Summary