The Misericordia University hockey team collected the first conference points in program history in its 2-2 tie with Arcadia University, Saturday night at the Toyota SportsPlex. After a scoreless overtime period, the Cougars took the shootout victory, 1-0, and captured two MAC points.
Ethan Hollingsworth opened the scoring on the power play to give MU a 1-0 lead at 17:21 of the second period.
Gabriel Reis doubled the Cougars' lead, 2:52 into the third period.
Arcadia scored twice in the third to send the game to overtime.
Patrick Toomey scored the lone goal of the shootout as Misericordia goaltender
Anthony Shrum shut the door on all three Arcadia attempts.
For the second night in a row, the Cougars defense was challenged right from the first puck drop as Shrum made his first save of the game just 33 seconds in while Toomey,
James Eng and
Zachary Micciche all blocked shots within the first five minutes of play.
MU went on the first power play of the game at 7:53, allowing the team to build some zone time on the other end of the ice. Eng,
Abraham Laggis,
Jack Tos and
Zach Ross all recorded shots on goal during the man-advantage, but the Cougars were unable to solve the Knights' goalie.
Misericordia continued to build offensive momentum as the period progressed. Although the first frame ended 0-0, MU outshot the Knights 24-11 and drew a pair of penalties through 20 minutes.
The Cougars' offense finally solved Arcadia's netminder late in the second period. While on the man advantage, Tos worked his way towards the slot and snuck a pass to Hollingsworth between the legs of a Knights' defender. Hollingsworth found the puck while being covered by a defender and buried a one-timer past the goalie's glove side to put MU on top, 1-0. Tos assisted on Hollingsworth's first collegiate goal on the power play at 17:21. Misericordia maintained their lead to the second intermission.
After an icing call was waved off early in the final frame, Misericordia cycled the puck around the offensive zone to
Jonathan Lush at the point. Lush unloaded a wrist shot from the blue line that was turned aside by the left pad of Arcadia's goaltender, however the loose puck found the stick of Reis in front of the net and he tapped in the rebound to light the lamp and give the Cougars a 2-0 lead. Lush assisted on Reis' first collegiate goal at 2:52 of the third period.
The Knights' offense began to pick up the intensity midway through the period. Shrum stood tall, making four consecutive saves. Arcadia finally found the back of the net at 9:42 to make it a one-goal game.
The Knights tied the game at 11:33 of the third period.
Arcadia continued to search for the go-ahead goal as regulation time dwindled, but two key blocks by Reis in the final 30 seconds kept the score knotted at 2-2.
In the shootout, Toomey weaved his way from the right side of the ice towards goal, faked a shot to the right side of the net and roofed the puck over the goaltender's glove side for a goal.
Shrum shut the door on all three of Arcadia's attempts to secure the shootout victory for the Cougars.
Lush and Tos shared the team lead with six shots on goal. Toomey scored the shootout winner and went 9-15 on faceoffs. Shrum made a whopping 37 saves in net.
The Cougars hit the road for a two-game MAC series at Stevenson, beginning Friday at 7:00.
