O'Fallon, Ill. - McKendree University D1 men's hockey earned a pair of wins between Friday, February 18 and Saturday, February 19 over Northern Illinois at home, capping off the regular season in perfect fashion. The Bearcats also celebrated their seniors during the two outings.

Game 1 | Friday, February 18
The Bearcats kicked off their goal-scoring early and often with freshman forward Nikita Eruslanov firing goal one just 2:45 into the first period of the weekend. Eruslanov was assisted by fellow forward, senior Nikita Sokov. Northern Illinois evened the opening game just over five minutes in with a goal. McKendree then came back in the eighth minute of the game with two goals in less than 30 seconds apart. Graduate defender Dmytro Golovko went first with a score 7:23 into the game, which was assisted by graduate forward Garrett Poole. At the 7:46 mark, McKendree added another goal behind junior forward Chris Noble, who was assisted by freshman forward Blake Martin and put the Bearcats up, 3-1. Northern Illinois cut the lead back to just one goal during the latter half of the first period but McKendree fired a fourth score of the period in the 19th minute. Freshman forward Nikita Eruslanov sent his second of the game into the net off a pass from Sokov and graduate forward Aleksy Ivasenko.

Period two started off with a goal from the visiting-Huskies half-way through the 20-minute session, which cut the lead back down to just one Bearcat goal. McKendree then never looked back, scoring three more in the final 30 minutes of action. The first of three was scored by Sokov in the 12th minute and was unassisted. Goal two of the period came with 14 seconds remaining and was scored again by Eruslanov, making his friday night a hat trick. He was assisted by Ivasenko and junior goalie Kayne Pasquet on the score. McKendree third goal of the final two periods came at the 13:42 mark of the third period with Sokov scoring once again on an assist from Eruslanov. 

Pasquet tended to the net in the game, amassing 33 saves against Morthern Illinois. 

Game 2 | Saturday, February 19
McKendree did not wait long to take the lead in the matchup on Saturday either with the first goal coming in the 12th minute of the first period from sophomore defender Trevor Roehrig and was assisted on by forwards sophomore Karsten Portell and junior Chris Noble. The Bearcats held the lead 1-0 after the first period concluded. The Bearcats then tacked on two more goals in the second period to lead the visiting-Huskies, 3-0. Just over six minutes into the second period, graduate forward Nick Nelson fired a score off a pass from sophomore forward Brad Richardson. The second goal came in the 17th minute from Roehrig, who was once again assisted by Noble and Portell.

Northern Illinois broke its no-score stalemate with a goal in the 15th minute, making the game a 3-1 lead for the Bearcats. McKendree then capped off the matchup with a goal from Sokov via Eruslanov, pushing the lead back to three goals at 4-1. 

Freshman goaltender Chad Purdy held the net in the second game of the weekend with 40 saves on 41 total Huskies shots. 


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