From The Alestle
By Sam Muren
The Cougars added two wins to their season with dominant victories over Loyola University Chicago on Friday and Saturday at East Alton Ice Arena.
The Cougars remain undefeated in regulation at home after their two wins over Loyola.
Senior goalie Brendan Rasch started for SIUE on Friday. From puck drop to the final buzzer, SIUE was the team in control in this game.
Early on, Loyola took a penalty to give SIUE a power play. The Cougars failed to score but managed to sustain significant pressure in the Ramblers’ zone. Despite the failed power play, the Cougars were outshooting the Ramblers 12-3 just 10 minutes into the game.
The game continued like this for most of the first period. Even when SIUE took their first penalty, they killed it off and did not allow Loyola many dangerous opportunities. The first period ended tied at zero.
Immediately at the start of the second period, junior forward Simon Maxfield scored to give SIUE a 1-0 lead. Not long after, he hit the post in a failed attempt to score again.
SIUE continued their extensive pressure and forced Loyola to take a penalty. This time, the Cougars made them pay for it. Senior forward Connor Hinterser scored on the power play and, bringing SIUE to 26 shots for a 2-0 lead.
Both teams then traded power plays but failed to capitalize on them. SIUE remained in control, but on a quick rush, Loyola managed to beat Rasch to cut the lead in half. The Cougars then took a penalty, but they were able to kill it off.
Junior forward Kaleb Harrop scored near the end of the period to give SIUE a 3-1 lead. With one second remaining in the period, both sides got into a minor scuffle. The Cougars finished the second period up 3-1 with 39 shots.
SIUE started the third period with a power play. They maintained strong pressure but could not find the back of the net. Finally, sometime after the power play, their line-after-line pressure paid off as senior forward Elijah DeFosset scored to put SIUE up 4-1.
Then SIUE took a penalty, but Loyola also took a penalty a minute later turning the game to a 4-on-4. The Ramblers struck on the 4-on-4 to again cut the Cougars’ lead in half.
Senior forward Brendan Sommer added some insurance with a goal to help secure the 5-2 victory. SIUE won and outshot their opponent 69-22 in shots.
The rematch took place the next day. Sophomore goalie Timothy Barbee started in net for the Cougars.
The captain started the scoring again for SIUE. Maxfield buried a setup from freshman forward Kadan Kruger and senior forward Terrance Puribhat. The Cougars were circling Loyola through the first.
Freshman defenseman Carson Weber scored to give SIUE a 2-0 lead. Then Harrop scored moments later to go up 3-0. The Cougars had three goals and 25 shots to finish the first period and a power play to start the second period.
Right off the faceoff, the Cougars quickly buried a power-play goal. Senior forward Jakob Schreiber scored and SIUE was up by four goals. Loyola took a slashing penalty not long after, but the Cougars could not capitalize back-to-back.
Then SIUE took two consecutive penalties to give Loyola a 30-second 5-on-3 power play. The Cougars managed to kill both penalties off but, shortly after, the Ramblers scored to get on the board. Schreiber answered right after to make the game 5-1.
DeFosset added a goal to pad the lead at the end of the second period. SIUE had outscored Loyola 6-1 and outshot them 40-16 at the end of the period.
The third period was quite an outlier from the previous two. Momentum swung back and forth between the teams, and only one penalty was called. SIUE managed to kill the penalty off, and Schreiber also added his third goal of the game for a hat trick.
“It felt good to put some goals up on this team,” Schreiber said.
It was clear the Cougars had let off the gas near the end, and they appeared to be feeding passes to certain teammates to try and get them a goal. Kruger, who had played a good game, could not finish the multiple opportunities he had.
“[I] got a lot of chances; I just couldn’t bury them. [I have] got to do some self-reflecting and get back to work,” Kruger said.
Barbee managed to stop all nine of Loyola’s shots in the third to secure the 7-1 victory for SIUE.
“It was a good weekend for our team. We did what we needed to do and focused on us,” Head Coach Tyler Elbrecht said. “For us, now we focus on little things over the next two days. [We will] let the guys go home for Thanksgiving, and then when we get back, we get Maryville [University] for two games at home.”
The back-to-back victories boosted SIUE’s home record to 8-0-1. The Cougars will have a rematch series against Maryville back home on Dec. 2 and 3 at East Alton Ice Arena.
(Originally published at https://www.alestlelive.com/sports/article_f84146d6-8da8-11ee-a077-d7605e0b3c84.html)
