FREMONT, Neb. - McKendree University men's hockey (12-12, 10-6 MCH) split the final weekend of the regular season against the Midland Warriors, falling to the Warriors on Friday night, 5-3, and beating Midland on Saturday afternoon, 4-1. The Bearcats captured five of their last six games of regular season slate to finish .500 overall and earn double-digit wins in conference. The MCH Tournament kicks off on February 24 back in Nebraska with a matchup against Northern Illinois, which McKendree bounced twice on February 3 and 4 at home with 6-3 and 8-0 wins.
Friday, February 10 | Game 1
The Bearcats and Warriors faced-off just a couple of weeks prior with McKendree taking both games at the McKendree Metro Rec Plex. McKendree looked to continues a four-game win streak during the road outing and began with vigor as senior forward
Cayden Brilley fired a goal just 33 seconds into the game to take a 1-0 lead. Senior defenseman
Ryan Radke dished-out the assist on the score.
Midland came back with a goal in the third minute by Fletcher Chun, tying the contest at 1-1. The first period then held null resulting in the tie game during the first intermission.
The hosting-Warriors then added their second goal in the third minute of the second period of action as Chun fired away once again. In the fifth minute of the period, freshman forward
Rycol Davis got the dish-off by junior forwards
Steven Brachert and
Brad Richardson, tying the game, 2-2, with his fifth score of the season. Period two also ended with a 2-2 knot-up.
Midland managed to fired three goals in the third period as the Bearcats scored just one with freshman forward
Cade Rosansky scoring his fifth of the year with fellow freshman forward
Kyle Munyankuge getting the assist.
The Warriors took the game on a 5-3 count.
Freshman goaltender
Dylan Dallaire received the loss but gathered 28 total saves on the night.
Scoring
P1 | #93
Cayden Brilley (3) via #14
Ryan Radke (13)
P2 | #71
Rycol Davis (5) via #81
Steven Brachert (6), #21
Brad Richardson (10)
P3 | #16
Cade Rosansky (5) via #39
Kyle Munyankuge (4)
Saturday, February 11 | Game 2
McKendree searched for a bounce-back in the Saturday outing after having its win streak snapped, and the Bearcats did just that with a 4-1 victory.
The Bearcats went down as Midland scored early in the first as Chun scored again but McKendree struck back to tie it. Davis scored his second of the weekend in the 15th minute of the first period with junior defenseman
Blake Martin and Richardson getting in on the assist. The first period ended with a 1-1 tie.
McKendree then scored the lone goal of the second period to take a 2-1 advantage as Radke fired his second of the year with freshman forward
Matias Alexandrov sending the assist.
In the third and final period of the regular season, McKendree added two insurance scores with Brachert and senior forward
Daniel Nomerstad both firing a goal. Richardson and junior forward
Price Dworin dished-out assists on Brachert's goal while Davis added his third point of the weeknd in Nomerstad's goal.
Sophomore
Chad Purdy held net for the Bearcats, grabbing 42 saves in the contest.
Scoring
P1 | #71
Rycol Davis (6) via #61
Blake Martin (1), #21
Brad Richardson (11)
P2 | #14
Ryan Radke (2) via #49
Matias Alexandrov (7)
P3 | #81
Steven Brachert (7) via #21
Brad Richardson (12), #15
Price Dworin (2)
P3 | #91
Daniel Nomerstad (2) via #71
Rycol Davis (12)
UP NEXT
McKendree men's hockey heads off to Nebraska once again for the MCH Tournament on February 24 through the 26. The Bearcats face off against Northern Illinois in the first round of the postseason tournament.
