ANGOLA, Ind. – The Trine University men's hockey team secured an upset victory over visiting Aurora University by the score of 4-2. The Spartans entered the weekend ranked second in the nation by both USCHO.com and DIII Hockey News. The Thunder were 12th in both polls.
Trine shocked the Aurora side with a goal a little over 30 seconds into the contest. Josh Wright stopped a clear attempt by the opposition before firing a shot from the top of the near circle. The Spartan goalie made the save, but let the rebound get away from him, allowing Brody Simko to covert for the goal.
In the fifth minute of the same period, the Thunder made the score 2-0. This time as Aurora tried to exit their zone, the puck was caught up in a skate near the blueline and once kicked free was loose for a moment just inside Trine's offensive end. Brendan Finn collected the puck and made a pass around a defender to Evan Carroll who raced to the near side before driving the puck home.
Along with the two goals, the Thunder dominated the first period. They kept the Spartans offense completely out of rhythm while firing constantly at their goalie at the other end. Trine won the shots battel 17-6 in the stanza.
Aurora cut into the lead in the seventh minute of the second, but Trine came up with a response in the 12th. Max Marquette took an offensive end faceoff and won it perfectly back to just the top of the circle. Sam Antenucci skated in from the boards, collected that puck and weaved a shot into the top of the net.
The 3-1 score lasted into the third period, before the Spartans pulled within one again. This time the shrunken deficit lasted just under a minute. This time Alexander Babich fired a shot on goal and again the Spartan goalie let the rebound go wide. Simko was waiting, but instead of taking a shot he fired a pass across net to Logan Furstenau who made his shot count.
Peyton Grainer finished out the game scoreless to secure the 4-2 victory. Grainer finished the contest with 24 saves and the win.
The Thunder improve to 13-5-2 overall and 9-2-2 in Northern Collegiate Hockey Association (NCHA) play after the win. They will faceoff with Aurora again tomorrow, Saturday, January 31. That contest is set to start at 4 p.m.
