ADRIAN, Mich. -- The Adrian College Men's ACHA Division 2 hockey team closed its regular season schedule with three games this past week. The Bulldogs grabbed a huge road win over Ohio University on Wednesday, before splitting a two-game series with Schoolcraft College on Friday and Sunday.
The Bulldogs opened action this past week with a mid-week Wednesday night battle in Athens, Ohio against the Bobcats; a top-ten team in the region. Adrian and Ohio were both forces to be reckoned with all game, as the two teams traded goals down to the very end. After both squads tallied twice in the opening frame, they each traded one more apiece in the second stanza to keep things knotted at 3-3 heading into period three. Early in the third, the Bobcats took the lead, but only seventeen seconds later it was
Nolan Baldrica who buried a breakaway beauty to tie it back up with thirteen minutes to go. Not even thirty seconds later,
Brayden Morris added his second of the game to give Adrian the lead, in which they held on to for the remainder of the contest to seal the 5-4 victory.
Bazl Cook and
Gabe Vijuk provided the first two goals in the game for Adrian and
Alexander Herman made a whopping 54 saves to earn the well-deserved win in net.
Adrian returned to the ice on Friday evening in Livonia as they faced off against the Schoolcraft Ocelots for the first of two meetings on the weekend. As they had hoped, the Bulldogs followed up their huge win over Ohio with a dominant performance over Schoolcraft, defeating the Ocelots, 5-1, in regulation. Morris tallied twice, while Cook,
Matthew Krueger, and
Griffin Clark rounded out the offense. Herman stood tall once again, making 27 saves in the win.
The two teams clashed at the Arrington Ice Arena on Sunday to close the series in what would be Adrian's final game of the regular season. Another close contest that went down to the wire unfortunately didn't go the way the Bulldogs wanted it to this time around as the Ocelots collected a 6-3 victory to spoil the Bulldog hopes of an undefeated week.
Michael Tucker,
Jack Kraemer, and
Jack Waldo provided the scoring in the loss on Sunday, while Herman made 46 saves on 51 shots in defeat.
With the regular season coming to an end, the 18-7-1 MD2 Bulldogs will now await the final regional rankings of the season to determine their spot at the ACHA Men's Division 2 Central Regional Tournament, set to take place from February 20-23 in La Crosse, Wisconsin. The Bulldogs currently sit No. 11 in the ACHA's central region, and will need to remain in the top-14 to secure a spot in the regional tournament and compete for a national tournament birth. The final rankings are scheduled to release later this week on Thursday, February 13.
