The Lions swept a two-game weekend road series against Kent State to clinch their third regular season Central States Collegiate Hockey League (CSCHL) title in the past four years.
In the contest Saturday night, Lindenwood outshot the Golden Flashes 44-12 and picked up a shutout win 4-0. After a scoreless first period, Tyler Bowman started the offense for the Lions in the second as he netted a goal on the power play with 5:10 left. Nick Carey and Jeremy Meletti picked up assists on what proved to be the game winning goal. In the third period, Grant Gorczyca put Lindenwood up 2-0 with help from Colin Long. Later in the period, Steve Brancheau scored on a play from Carey and Gorczyca and Eric Combs put the finishing touches on the win as he scored a goal assisted by Gorczyca and Carey with just 23 seconds left in the game. Linus Ahgren stopped all 12 shots he faced to earn his first shutout victory.
In the series opener on Friday, the Lions skated even with Kent State to a 1-1 tie after one period of play, but then broke things open after that. Cam Chinnery found the back of the net midway through the first with help from Joe Bostic and Steve Brancheau. The Golden Flashes answered with 2:58 left. It took only 36 seconds for Lindenwood to score in the second period as Cooper Mitchell lit the lamp off a feed from Long to put the Lions up 2-1. Just over two minutes later, Peppi Sipila scored on a play from Eric Combs and Bostic and Meletti beat the Kent State goalie less than a minute after that for Lindenwood's fourth goal of the game. Brancheau put the finishing touches on a four goal period as he scored unassisted with just over 12 minutes left. The Lions scored four times in the third period including two goals on the power play and they held Kent State to only one goal as Lindenwood cruised to a 9-2 win.
Kent Henry stopped nine of 11 shots to earn the win at goal and the Lions outshot the Golden Flashes 55-11 in Friday's game and 99-23 overall for the series.
Lindenwood improved to 23-4 overall and 12-0 in the CSCHL. The Lions will look to keep their momentum going as they host Iowa State for a two game set at the Lindenwood Ice Arena February 3-4. The Lions began their current 12 game winning streak against the Cyclones back in early December with a hard fought 4-3 shoot-out win. Game time Friday evening is 7:30 p.m. and the puck drops at 4 p.m. on Saturday afternoon.
