The Saint Louis University club hockey team had victory in their hands Saturday night. But, their fingers must have been slippery as they watched a 2-0 lead slip through their fingers and become a 3-2 loss.
In the first period, the Billikens managed to keep the Wolves’ offensive lines quiet and ended the period scoreless. Despite eventually giving up three goals, the Bills were effective in reducing UMD’s chances.
“We had a great effort,” said coach John Bosch. “We came in and tried to shut down (UMD’s) offensive lines. We had a good checking line of John Gissy, Jon Zimmerman and Al Lordo, and those guys did a great job of shutting them down.”
In the second period, the Bills and the Wolves picked up the tempo of the game and traded shots on goal. SLU was the first to score in the 10th minute of the period when Dan O’Brien sailed the puck to Greg McLennan, who caught the Wolves’ goaltender on his knee and ripped a shot into the upper right corner between the pipes.
Four minutes after McLennan’s goal, Eric Herbst pushed the Bills to a comfortable 2-0 lead, scoring off a pass from Tim Niedbalski. Just 24 seconds later, it looked as though the Bills put the game away, netting a third shot, but the goal did not count since it was scored off a hand pass.
In the 17th minute of the second period, the Wolves mounted a rally and cut the SLU lead in half. UMD’s John Maley challenged Billiken goalie Geoff Schuessler, but the puck deflected off Schuessler’s glove into the net.
In the third period, UMD came back from the intermission feisty, scoring the tying goal just five minutes into the period.
Neither team could break the tie before the end of regulation, sending the game into sudden-death overtime.
Maley ended the game just 50 seconds into play, sailing the puck into the upper corner of the net past Schuessler, ending the game 3-2.
“We had good lines throughout the game and we were solid all the way through,” Niedbalski said. “Whoever made mistakes got goals (scored against them) in that game, and we made one more mistake than they did.”
Friday night, the Billikens suffered a 7-3 pounding by the Wolves.
UMD quieted the Bills early in the match, scoring five unanswered goals in the first 30 minutes of play.
“We didn’t come in with the mindset to play, and it showed,” Bosch said. “We would have a guy on each line who would go hard, but we didn’t have a total effort. We just weren’t in sync.”
Finally, Brian Clinton snapped the Bills’ cold shooting streak during a power play halfway through the second period. Kelsey Johnston picked up the assist on Clinton’s one-touch goal.
A minute later in the period, Jordan Janes and Chris Peterson sparked an offensive attack and connected with Niedbalski, who netted the second goal of the match.
In the third period, the Wolves were held several minutes without scoring another goal against SLU’s second goaltender, Russ Sprague. Niedbalski buried the Bills’ final goal of the match, but the team could not mount a rally to overcome the early Wolves’ lead.
This weekend, the Billikens will host the U.S. Naval Academy in a back to back series beginning Saturday night in Chesterfield. Sunday night, the Billikens will play the Midshipmen again in Fairview Heights to wrap up their weekend series.
