ANGOLA, Ind. – The Trine University men's ACHA D3 hockey team came away with a 5-2 victory over visiting Adrian College behind a three-goal second period.
The lone goal of the first period came from Trine's sophomore forward Isaiah Crawford (Detroit, Mich.) with 13 minutes remaining in the stanza. The Thunder took the 1-0 lead into the first intermission.
In the second period, the Thunder outscored the opposition 3-1, behind three different skaters tallying goals. Sophomore forward Jacob Ruelle (Niles, Mich.) came up with the first goal of the period with just under 17 minutes remaining. Crawford added his second in the eighth minute and then freshman Trevor Thornson (Fort Wayne, Ind.) got the third with just under four minutes remaining.
Trine held onto the 4-1 lead until the 16th minute of the final period when Adrian pulled within two with their second goal of the game.
One minute later the Bulldogs gambled when they forced an offensive zone faceoff by pulling the goaltender in favor of an extra attacker. The risk didn't pay off as Trine's Joshua Kucharski (Fort Wayne, Ind.) came up with the empty net goal to ice the game and give the Thunder the 5-2 victory.
Senior Daniel Klaybor (South Bend, Ind.) played superbly in net for the Thunder coming away with 43 saves in the contest. His most impressive stretch came after the Bulldogs first goal with the opposition up a man. Klaybor turned aside five quick shots from the opposition, punctuating the effort by going the width of the net to save an almost surefire game-tying goal.
The team improves to 9-5-1 overall following the victory. They will next take the ice when they host Calvin College on Friday, Dec. 7. The game is scheduled to start at 7 p.m.