Last Friday the Lions were a part of the Dll Men’s National Championship tournament held at the Centene Community Ice Center in Maryland Heights Missouri.
The first game of pool play began Friday night, but had to be paused and resumed on Monday due to severe weather in the area. The Lions got their first pool play win on Saturday against Northeastern University by a score of 3-0. In the second pool play game the Lions took it to the University of Utah winning 8-1 on Sunday. Then on Monday in the resumed game the Lions beat Indiana University 4-1.
After the Lions went 3-0 in pool play that earned them a spot in the final four to have a real shot at winning the title.
The Lindenwood Lions secured their spot in the National Championship game after a win against Florida Gulf Coast University Eagles on Tuesday afternoon where the Lions took home a 5-1 win in the Men’s Division II ACHA [American Collegiate Hockey Association] National Championship.
The Lions played a dominant first period tallying 18 shots to seven against FGC, leading to the Lions’ first goal at 4:25 by Sophomore Zac Maupin, assisted by Gavin Delfosse and Nolan Kahl. The Lions kept the Eagles off for the rest of the first and second periods.
The Lions doubled the score after a rebound goal was knocked in from Sophomore Logan Millhausen at 11:58, assisted by Ethan Christofferson. It was not until 18:59 when the Lions player Kahl received a penalty putting the Lions on the Kill. The Eagles responded to the opportunity with 1.3 seconds remaining on the clock with a powerplay goal making the Eagles hold on in the Lion’s 2-1 lead heading into the third period.
It was not long into the third before the Lions took control of the scoring with a shot by Chase McClellan was tipped in the net by Senior Michael Mullen at 1:18 into the period. It was not long after when Sophomore Brett Robinson fed a breakaway pass to Austin Meers allowing him to split the Eagle’s Defense adding another goal to the Lions lead.
The Lions continued to hold the lead against the FGCU Eagles even with two time-outs called by both the Eagles and Lions. This left the Lions with a five on six player disadvantage with an open net for the Eagles for the final minutes of the game. The Lions continued to defend goaltender Cole Wheaton who stopped 21 of 22 shots faced allowing them to bury the final empty net goal, his second of the game scored by Mullen at 19:14, assisted by Freshman Jack Louko. The Lions finished the game doubling the shots of FGCU 44-22.
The Lions secured the 5-1 victory sending them into the ACHA Men’s Division II Championship game where they faced the Montana State University Bobcats. Head Coach Gary Gardner stated his confidence in the Lions as the group continues to keep moving on into the National Championship final. He states playing above and establishing themselves with their offensive forecheck will continue to allow the Lions to be successful.
On Wednesday, March 19th the Men’s ACHA Division II team brought home their first national title after an extremely physical game.
The Lions dominated in the first period, outshooting the Montana State University Bobcats 13-8 where Senior Ryan Granville was able to put the Lions on the scoreboard with a pass from Delfosse and Robinson at 5:27 into the first. The Bobcats answered quickly a few minutes later making the score 1-1. It was not until Praveen Dhaliwal and Ethan Christofferson were able to set Millhausen to put the Lions ahead with a goal.
As the Bobcats continued to try and stay in the game the Lions continued to play the game they had all season with a record of 36-3 where Nick Jones and Meers were able to feed a breakaway pass to Louko who buried it into the net extending the Lions lead to 3-1.
The Bobcats entered the third period with something to prove and put up a fight against the Lions, but it was no match. After a called time out by Montana State and a goalie pulled, the Lions were able to keep the score rolling with an empty net goal from Millhausen after being set up by Robinson.
With the Lions 4-1 win over the Bobcats the Lions captured their first ever National Championship in program history. This has always been the goal for the Lions and is finally something that they can say they have accomplished. The Lions will be starting next season with the goal of going back to back as National Champions.
