O'FALLON, Ill. – The McKendree Bearcats were back on home ice for Homecoming Weekend as they welcomed in the Northern Illinois University Huskies on Friday, October 11th and Saturday, October 12th. Both teams showed the flair for the dramatics in the two-game series, but the Bearcats came out with all four points on the weekend with a pair of shootout wins.
Friday, October 11th
The Bearcats and Huskies had slow start to the opening stanza of the weekend. After the Bearcats killed off an early NIU powerplay, Kyle Munyankuge netted his first of the season on the helpers by Matias Alexandrov and Jack Sumner.
McKendree took the 1-0 lead going into the first intermission, but NIU tied the game in the fourth minute of the second period. With time winding down in the period, the Huskies took the lead with 3 minutes left before the intermission.
A key moment in the final period as Ben Anderson was hit with a five-minute major and a game misconduct, leaving his teammates to kill off the five minute power play. The Bearcats were able to successfully kill it off, resulting in some momentum for McKendree. They used that momentum to get a Joe McCormick power play goal, his fourth of the year with 23 seconds left on the dish-out from Alex Kent. After a scoreless 3-on-3 overtime period, this one had to be decided in a shootout.
McCormick was the first shooter for McKendree and he was successful. Goaltender Chad Purdy stopped all three of the NIU attempts in route to the win.
For the contest, Purdy stopped 33 of 36 NIU shots, while the Bearcats fired 43 of their own shots at the NIU net minder.
Saturday, October 12th
The start of game two between the two teams was a slow one until the Bearcats entered the scoring column first. Joe McCormick scored his second of the weekend and fifth of the season in the 14th minute, on the assists from Blake Martin and Matias Alexandrov. The Huskies tied the game just four minutes later and that's how the first period ended.
The middle stanza was a scoring fest as there were five goals scored. Alex Kent found the back of the net for his third of the season on the helper from Trey Erramouspe just two minutes in. Not even a minute later, Alexandrov netted his second of the season to give McKendree the 3-1 lead on the dish-outs from Jack Harris and Tarcisius Tibishkogijig. After NIU made it 3-2, Bennett Uchacz scored his second of the season at the midway point of the second period, with the assists coming from Kent and Martin.
Eventually, NIU tied it in the third period forcing the game to overtime once again.
For the second night in a row, McCormick started off the shootout with the only goal. Dylan Dallaire stopped all three NIU attempts in picking up the win.
