MARYLAND HEIGHTS, Mo. – The Lindenwood men's hockey team (3-5-0) lost a heartbreaker in overtime against Omaha (2-2-0, 0-0-0 NCHC) at Centene Community Ice Center on Saturday night. The Lions held a two-goal lead for the second consecutive game but fell by a score of 4-3 following three unanswered goals by the Mavericks.
Before building their lead, Lindenwood briefly fell behind in the first period after Maël Lavigne converted on a power play at the 12:17 mark to give the Mavericks a 1-0 lead. However, the Lions quickly answered with
Adam Raesler delivering a pinpoint pass from near the boards to a charging
Chris Thibodeau, who tapped the puck into the net for the equalizer.
With the game tied at one apiece following the first intermission, a
Chase LaPinta attempt on net rebounded off the Omaha goaltender's pads and found the stick of
Ethan Zielke, who lit the lamp with a nifty turnaround shot to put Lindenwood ahead six minutes into the second frame.
The Lions would double their lead later in the period, this time with
Chris Thibodeau firing a shot on goal that rebounded to
Brady McIsaac, who nestled a backhanded shot into the back of the net from close range to make the score 3-0.
Lindenwood looked poised to carry a two-goal lead into the second intermission, but Omaha's Logan Wormald had other ideas and cut the lead in half with a four-on-four goal with just 25 second remaining in the second period.
The Mavericks would go on to tie the game at the 8:43 mark of the third period with Luke Woodworth goal, and after neither team was able to find a go-ahead score through the reaming 11 minutes and change, the contest headed to overtime.
In their first overtime game of the season, Lindenwood was unable to find the game-winner before a turnover led to a two-man breakaway for Omaha that was taken advantage of by Sean Tschigerl, who converted on the opportunity to win the game for the Mavericks.
Next Up
Lindenwood gets next week off before heading back to Colorado Springs the first weekend of November to face off with Colorado College. Game one against the Tigers is set for 8:00 p.m. CT on Friday, November 6
th with game two following at 5:00 p.m. CT on Saturday the 7
th.
