From The Alestle
By Sam Muren
The SIUE Cougars lost to Bradley University 5-2 on Feb. 9 at Maryville University Hockey Center, but in the face of disappointment, they announced a Division 3 team.
The loss ended the Cougars’ season in the quarterfinals of the Mid-American Collegiate Hockey Association playoffs. The University of Iowa ended up winning the Gold Division title.
SIUE played 25 regular-season divisional games. They won nine of those games.
Junior forward Kaleb Harrop led the team in scoring with goals through 26 games (14 goals-9 assists-23 points) according to Mid-American Collegiate Hockey’s website.
The Cougars’ captain, junior forward Simon Maxfield, had the most team assists with 12.
SIUE’s leading defenseman in points was freshman Ethan Kuehnel, who had seven points in 22 games.
Senior goalie Brendan Rasch started in 20 games for SIUE this season. His record was 6-11-3. Despite the losing record, Rasch had a 0.935 save percentage and posted one shutout.
Backup sophomore goalie Tim Barbee Jr. had a 3-3-0 record and ended with a 0.899 save percentage.
Despite the undesired result of the playoffs, SIUE Hockey announced that the Cougars will have a Division 3 team for the 2024-25 season. The announcement was made on SIUE Hockey’s Instagram account.
The Division 3 team will allow any interested players to play for SIUE in a lower-skilled bracket. According to SIUE Hockey’s Instagram, the team will function similarly to the Division 2 team just against lower-skilled opponents.
The team also is to help players cultivate their skills and potentially move up to the D2 team.
All eyes will now be on the upcoming 2024-25 season, when Cougars fans will have both D2 and D3 hockey to watch.
(Originally published at https://www.alestlelive.com/sports/article_6ab2a6e6-d116-11ee-ac59-3f497781a728.html)
