DEKALB, Ill. – The Bearcats picked up two key conference wins over the weekend as they traveled to Northern Illinois University on Friday, January 26th and Saturday, January 27th. In game one of the weekend, McKendree and NIU got into a high-scoring affair as the Bearcats won 11-7. Saturday's contest was not as of high-scoring with McKendree winning 5-4.
Game One – Friday, January 26th
The scoring came early and often between the Huskies and the Bearcats. Alex Kent got it started just 75 seconds into the contest with assists from Steven Brachert and Matias Alexandrov. Joe McCormick netted the power play goal, his first of the contest 12 minutes in on the assists from Ben Anderson and Rycol Davis to make it 2-1. After NIU made it 2-2, Brachert gave the Bearcats the lead once more on the assist from Alexandrov, his 15th of the season. Brad Richardson scored his 8th of the season with three minutes left in the opening stanza to make it a 4-3 game. McCormich and Davis, his second of the game, picked up the assists on the even-strength tally.
Brachert picked up his second of the game, sixth of the season on the power play at the 2:49 mark of the second period to make it 5-3 McKendree. Alexandrov collected his third helper of the game and Anderson with his second. Jack Harris found the back of the net at the 8:28 mark to give the Bearcats the three-goal lead, with Cade Rosansky and Connor Mullins picking up the assists. Four minutes later, McCormick picked up his second power play goal of the evening (8th of the season). With a little under three minutes left to play in the middle period, Rycol Davis got in on the scoring with his sixth of the season to make it a 7-5 game after NIU scored two quick goals. Richardson and Tarcisius Tibishkogijig picked up the helpers on the tally.
The game-winning goal would come via McCormick picking up the hat trick at the 3:32 mark of the final period with Anderson collecting his fourth assist of the game and Davis getting the other helper. Davis would net the final two goals of the game to pick up his hat trick and cap the high scoring affair.
The hat tricks by McCormick and Davis were the first of their individual careers.
Adam Siek relieved starting goaltender Chad Purdy at the beginning of the second period and collected the win stopping 16-of-20 shots in relief.
This the first time since November of 2019 in which the team has scored double-digit goals in single game.
Game Two – Saturday, January 27th
McKendree's hot scoring picked right back up in the early stages of the second game of the weekend. Davis picked up his fourth of the weekend and 9th of the season just 52 seconds into the opening period. Trevor Roehrig and Blake Martin picked up the helpers on the game-opening goal. Rosansky made it 2-0 Bearcats three minutes later with the assist coming from Jack Sumner. Northern Illinois answered with two goals of their own to tie the game at 2.
Four minutes into the middle frame, Ben Anderson scored his second of the season with the assist from McCormick to put McKendree back on top. Alexandrov made it 4-2 on the assists from Brachert and Mullins. Once again, NIU scored two unanswered goals to tie the game at 4.
Alexandrov scored his second of the game, and ninth of the season to give the Bearcats the weekend sweep at the 18:15 mark.
Siek picked up the win stopping 24-of-28 shots seeing full-time.
The Bearcats return home on February 2nd and 3rd as they host the University of Illinois at the McKendree Metro Rec Plex.
