Freshman聽Alessio Luciani registered his first career hat trick to help ignite visiting Adrian to a come-from-behind 6-3 victory over Concordia-Wisconsin, 6-3, in a Northern Collegiate Hockey Association men’s hockey contest on Saturday evening, extending the Bulldogs’ winning streak to a season-high seven games.
Senior Vinny Post led Adrian in the face-off circle by winning 11 of 18 draws.聽Junior goalie聽Cameron Gray聽had 29 saves to win his seventh decision in a row and improve to 12-4-1 on the season.聽Senior Bryce Van Horn and freshman Zachary Heintz both recorded a goal and assist.聽Sophomore Trevor Coykendall contributed an assist and went 5-for-9 at the face-off dot.
Braydon Barker led all skaters with seven shots on goal, he recorded an assist and went 6-for-9 on face-offs.聽Dante Hahn, who notched two points on a goal and an assist, led all centermen with 16 face-off wins and 30 attempts.聽Nick Guiney and Brandon MacKinnon also scored for the Falcons.
The Bulldogs extend their dominance over the Falcons with a 42-0 all-time series lead. Adrian is 20-0 lifetime on CUW’s home-ice. NCAA Division III National Rankings: Adrian is No. 11 (130 points) by聽U.S. College Hockey Online and No. 12 in the PairWise
Concordia-Wisconsin quickly got out to a 2-0 lead in the first period on goals 14 seconds apart by聽Brandon聽MacKinnon and Nick聽Guiney, beginning 2 minutes and 44 seconds after the opening puckdrop.
However, Adrian scored three unanswered goals to close a wild opening stanza. Van Horn got the Bulldogs on the scoreboard at the 4:02 mark, with assists coming from Heintz and sophomore聽Brandon Marinelli. At 10:56,聽Luciani tied it with his first goal of the night on assists from seniors Matt McNair and Joey Colatarci. Then 2:20 later, freshman Nick Lund gave AC its first lead with an unassisted tally.
Hahn helped CUW tie the game at 3-all with his power play goal at 15:09 of the second period.聽Barker and Nick Guerra were credited with the assists.
Adrian took control the rest of the way as Heintz ended the stanza with his 13th goal of the season with 1:58 remaining, taking a feed from Van Horn, for the game-winner.
The @AdrianBulldogs will go to Trine Friday and Saturday with the opportunity to win the conference championship. A couple scenarios exist, including- two Bulldog wins in the final weekend of the regular season. https://t.co/fXmAXyPCCT
— Adrian College Hockey (@ACbulldoghockey) February 9, 2020
Luciani capped the comeback with a pair of goals in the third period, scoring at 8:24 on a pass from senior聽Dino Balsamoand potting an empty-net tally at 18:21 on聽Coykendall’s assist.
Both teams recorded 32 shots on goal.聽Lake Forest skated to another overtime tie with Aurora tonight so that means Adrian has tied the Foresters for the most points in the NCHA standings with 28 apiece. Both teams have two games left in the regular season, as the Bulldogs hold the inside track since they hold the head-to-head tiebreaker (Adrian beat LFC 4-1 and 5-4 in overtime).
Adrian improves to 5-1-1 when allowing the first goal and 10-4-1 when leading after the first period.聽Colatarci appeared in his 100th game wearing the Black & Gold. He has career highs of six goals, 14 assists and 20 points this season for totals of 14+41=55.
Adrian closes out the regular season on the road with a weekend series at Trine for a pair of conference games on Friday and Saturday, both starting at 7 p.m.
This article was written using a press release and information generated by Adrian College鈥檚 sports information department and Patrick Stewart. It is nearly entirely a repost of the original press release. For more college sports, follow us on Twitter @MWSNsports聽or like our page on Facebook.
