Warriors Drop Pair To Colorado State In Home Opening Weekend

From Midland Athletics

 

FREMONT, Neb. – Playing on home ice for the first time this season, Midland University dropped a pair of contests to Colorado State University. The Rams bested the Warriors 9-5 in a high-scoring Friday night affair and then won in a shutout, 6-0, on Saturday night. The results drop Midland to 0-6 in the early going while Colorado State improves to 8-2.

FRIDAY: Colorado State 9, Midland 5

After just one goal through the first period on Friday, the floodgates busted open in the second. Midland tied the game up at the 6:05 mark of the period off a goal by Zach Eddington off assists from Tommy Wardas and Fletcher Chun. That goal was quickly matched by the Rams with their counterattack netting the go-ahead goal nine seconds later.

Chun brought the Warriors even with his second goal of the season at the 11:14 mark. Eddington and Jared Wisely picked up the assists on the score.

The tie was once again short-lived as CSU scored their third goal of the game just over a minute later. They would add two more before Midland could get one past the Rams’ goalie. They did so via a power-play chance following an interference. With under five minutes to go before the second intermission, Wardas scored off a feed from Logan Wotton.

Before the period expired, Colorado State took advantage of a power-play chance. They netted the eventual game-winner at the 18:08 mark following a roughing call against Midland.

In the final period, Midland found the back of the net twice. At the 13:26 mark, Jack Olson scored his first goal as a Warrior off assists from Jack Royer and Tanner Mros. Chun got his second of the game with just over a minute to go off a pass from Wardas.

The Warriors were the aggressors with a 55-30 shot advantage but couldn’t get the puck past the Rams’ netminder. Ondrej Patha picked up 21 saves in the loss, going the full 60 minutes in net for the Warriors.

SATURDAY: Colorado State 6, Midland 0

In the series finale, the teams played to a scoreless draw through 20 minutes of action. Then, in the second period, the Rams’ offense came to life with five goals. They scored twice off the power play, bookending the period.

After a call for elbowing went against the Warriors, CSU scored their first of the night at the 6:00 minute mark. They added a second 31 seconds later and then two more in the 14th minute of the period. Before the intermission, they netted another power-play goal. A tripping penalty led to the advantage and with 45 seconds on the clock, they scored goal number five to take a commanding lead into the dressing rooms.

The final period saw more whistles for penalties than goals. Each team was sent to the box three times and just one goal was scored. That final point came in the final minute as CSU skated to a 6-0 win over Midland.

Both teams put 40 shots on frame. Nahuel Veyan corralled 34 saves in 60 minutes of play for Midland.

“We’ve had a challenging start to the season with two road series against top-five teams and this weekend’s series against a good CSU team,” said head coach Jan Dam. “We made some adjustments after Friday night and I thought we played better in the first period on Saturday. We have seen the areas in which we need to improve and we’ll take the steps needed to get better this coming week. We’ve got a big series this weekend with the start of conference play.”

Midland (0-6) will begin play in the Midwest College Hockey conference next Friday and Saturday in West Dundee, Illinois. They’ll face Northern Illinois (0-8) at the Canlan Sports Ice Centre. Puck drop is set for 7:30 p.m. on October 28 and 5:00 p.m. on October 29.

(Originally published at https://www.midlandathletics.com/article/6792.php#.Y1aZ53bMJPY)