Men's ice hockey suffered a series opening 3-1 loss against conference opponent Robert Morris (Ill.) Friday night in Bensenville, Ill.

Lindenwood never led during the contest as the Eagles scored first at the 4:04 mark of the opening period.  The Lions did tie the game with 15:09 remaining in the second when Brandon Rumble set up Lukas Daniels for a goal, but that would prove to be the lone tally for Lindenwood.

Robert Morris took advantage of a power play early in the third period to take a 2-1 advantage and then nursed that margin for the remainder of regulation.  That forced the Lions to pull their goalie with less than two minutes to go.  The Eagles once again capitalized on the situation and scored an empty-netter to seal the game. 

Lindenwood outshot Robert Morris 25-22 and Cody Karpinski stopped 19 of 21 shots in a losing effort between the pipes for the Lions.  In a well played end-to-end contest that only featured three power plays, the Eagles were the only team to get a man-advantage score on two chances while Lindenwood went 0-1.

With the loss, the Lions dropped to 14-13-2 overall and 9-5-1 in the Central States Collegiate Hockey League.  Lindenwood will try to split the series and finish the regular season with a win Saturday night.  The puck drops at 7 p.m. against Robert Morris in Bensenville, Ill.