APPLETON, Wis. -- Seven different skaters tallied a goal as the Trine University men's hockey team finished the regular season with a 7-2 victory over their hosts from Lawrence University.
The Thunder struck quickly in the contest, after receiving a power play opportunity in just the second minute of play. Sophomore Chace McCardle (Southgate, Mich.) scored the goal just a few seconds into that power play to give the team a 1-0 lead.
The team would add to that lead in the tenth minute of play. This time senior Garrett Hallford (McKinney, Texas) scored the goal.
Just before the end of the period, the Vikings got on the board for themselves scoring to cut the lead to 2-1 going into the first intermission.
Trine came out firing on all cylinders in the second period, scoring four goals in the first five minutes of play.
Just 52 seconds into the period, freshman Bobby Price (Sault Ste. Marie, Mich.) started the scoring run for the team. Then in the third minute classmate Drew Welsch (Trenton, Mich.) scored the second. Matt Bielinski (Buffalo, N.Y.) came up with the third of the period in the fourth minute and then junior Brett Piper (Cartier, Manitoba) finished the run in the fifth minute with a power play goal to make the score 6-1.
Lawrence scored their final goal of the game in the 14th minute of the period and the game would head into the third period 6-2.
The lone goal of the final period would belong to the Thunder, with last night's hero sophomore Thad Marcola (Almont, Mich.) scoring to give the team their final 7-2 lead.
Sophomore Elias Sandholm (Stockholm, Sweden) played the game in net for the Thunder and finished the game with the win along with 22 saves.
Trine finishes the regular season 17-7-1 overall and 11-6-1 in Northern Collegiate Hockey Association (NCHA) play. The season is the team's best by four wins and they will head into the Harris Cup Playoffs as either the three or four seed, the best finish in NCHA play.
They will host the opening round of the Harris Cup Playoffs next weekend, starting on Friday, Feb. 18 at 7 p.m.