ANGOLA, Ind. – The Trine University men's hockey team dropped their opening game of this year's Northern Collegiate Hockey Association (NCHA) Harris Cup Playoffs by the score of 2-1 to visiting Milwaukee School of Engineering.
The Raiders scored the first goal of the game in the 11th minute of the first period. The goal came off a long pass from their own defensive end that found a MSOE skater behind the Trine defense.
The 1-0 deficit held until the 17th minute. It was then that senior Brendan Prappas won a faceoff in the offensive zone, pushing the puck back toward the blueline where classmate Brett Tierney was waiting to collect it. Tierney skated up the boards before passing the puck back to the slot where Prappas fired a shot into the top part of the net for the goal.
The game remained tied at one through the first intermission and into the opening minutes of the second period. Then in the fourth minute of the second, MSOE retook the lead with their second goal.
With the 2-1 lead in hand the Raiders played defense for the remainder of the contest. Despite outshooting the road team 41-22, the Thunder were unable to find the back of the net for a second time and the game would go final.
The Thunder fall to 17-8-1 overall following the loss. The team will need to win their game tomorrow, Saturday, February 18 to force a tiebreaking mini-game to have a chance to advance to the semifinal round of the Harris Cup Playoffs. The mini-game would be played directly following tomorrow game which is scheduled to begin at 5 p.m.