(O'FALLON, Ill., Jan. 24) – The McKendree University men's D1 hockey team completed the sweep of visiting Waldorf University on Saturday afternoon with an 8-4 victory over the Warriors.
The win pushes McKendree to 2-2 in Midwest College Hockey (MCH) play. The Bearcats will continue their regular season action on the road Feb. 5-6 against Iowa State.
McKendree racked up a 5-0 lead in just the opening period. The first was scored nine minutes into the start by senior
Shayne Pluto (Calgary, Alberta, Canada/Central Memorial High School), with assists from freshmen
Brad Richardson () and
Trevor Roehrig (). Less than a minute later, freshman
Kirill Proskurin () scored another goal after connecting with senior
Ryan Reader (Granite City, IL/Granite City High School). The Bearcats didn't stop there. Just 20 seconds later, senior
Adam Dempski (St. Charles, MO/Francis Howell North HS) found the back of the net with help from sophomore
Noah Scrum (Maryville, IL/Collinsville High School) and freshman
Jacob Wickham (). The fourth goal was scored by junior
Otasowie Omoregie (Pickering, Ontario, Canada/) following passes from Scrum and Dempski. Then just seconds before the buzzer, McKendree scored yet again. Sophomore
Chris Noble (Holiday, FL/East Lake High School) buried a goal with assists from freshman
Jesper Lundqvist () and senior
Daniel Nordlander (Göteborg, Sweden/Wasaskolan Tingsryd).
The Warriors broke their scoreless stretch halfway through the second period. The Bearcats didn't hesitate, Pluto scored his second goal of the day, this time unassisted. Waldorf countered back with two more goals shortly after, making the score 6-3 at the end of the second period.
Nordlander wasted no time, scoring an unassisted power-play goal 45 seconds into the final period. With six minutes remaining, the Warriors scored their fourth goal. Freshman
Lucas Brown () beat the final buzzer, scoring with only 57 seconds left of the game. Nordlander and Richardson were credited with assists.
Between the pipes, freshman
Brady Weiss () made 44/48 saves in the victory, for a good .916 save percentage.
