MILWAUKEE – The Trine University men's hockey team ended regulation and overtime tied with their hosts from the Milwaukee School of Engineering, but netted a pair after regular play to secure the shootout victory.
The Thunder opened the scoring just into the 17th minute of the contest. After an icing call, the team had a faceoff in the offensive zone. Alexander Babich won it straight back to the point where Luke deVries was waiting. The sophomore fired a shot toward net, that Babich tipped from his position in the faceoff circle. The deflection found the back of the net.
The Raiders quickly responded, taking advantage of a power play opportunity to make the score 1-1 before the 18th minute of the period. That score held into the first intermission.
After a flurry of offensive activity near the end of a MSOE penalty, Babich and deVries retreated for a reset, passing the puck back and forth to the defensive blueline. Eventually, deVries found Logan Furstenau along the far boards, allowing the junior to skate into across the blueline before passing the puck back to Jack Cooper who skated in to the net. Cooper fired a shot from the far circle that deflected off a MSOE defender and into the goal.
The Raiders scored their second goal of the game in the 13th minute of the same period, sending the game to its second intermission tied 2-2. The home side outshot the Thunder in the third period, 10-7, but Kyle Kozma made each save asked of him, sending the game to overtime.
Kozma made another save, while the MSOE netminder made a pair of saves to keep the score the same again. Kozma made a pair of stops in the shootout while both Brody Simko and Furstenau found the back of the net to secure the extra point toward the NCHA standings.
Trine ends the day 5-1-1 overall and 4-0-1 in NCHA play. They will faceoff with MSOE again tomorrow, Saturday November 22. The game is scheduled to start at 4 p.m. ET / 3 p.m. CT.
