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Lions come up short, lose 3-2 in overtime to Lake Forest

David Archambeau/Daily Mining Gazette Finlandia’s Bryce Mitzel readies to shoot the puck during a game Saturday against Lake Forest at the Houghton County Arena.

HANCOCK — After fighting back from one-goal deficits twice Saturday, the Finlandia Lions men’s hockey team was 4:04 away from earning a three-point weekend. Unfortunately, a misplay in their own end gave the Lake Forest Foresters enough space to bury their third chance in sequence into the back of the net and come away with a 3-2 win.

Even with the loss at the Houghton County Arena, Lions coach Joe Burcar was frustrated with how things ended.

“We fought back all night,” he said. “We killed off some crucial penalties. We took it to overtime and we broke down in our game plan. We let that slip away.”

Two mistakes near the blue line cost the Lions two goals in the contest.

The first came late in the first period when sophomore defenseman Adam Wammes was caught along the boards near the red line. As the puck squirted out of a scrum, freshman defender Cory Richardson stepped into the path of the puck, but missed it, creating a breakaway for Will Lebel, who skated in alone and beat Lions goaltender Marcus Gloss at 19:11.

The second came in overtime as a Lions’ forward failed to clear the puck out, creating an odd-man rush from the blue line in. Austin Aksoy made a move around a falling Lions’ defender and got a shot on goal that Gloss stopped. Gloss recovered to stop another chance from Josh Giachomin before Kyler Magus finally knocked the puck home, ending the contest.

Burcar was frustrated with the costly errors.

“From the neutral zone, were we broke down coverage, to back pressure (we struggled),” said Burcar. “We didn’t get enough back pressure because Marcus had to make three saves before it went it.”

Captain Alex Rezansoff found a way to help mitigate the cost of the first Lions’ defensive mistake as he buried a power play marker 6:32 into the second period. Freshman winger Teddy Randell found sophomore winger Connor Hannon in the left side of the slot. Hannon picked his head up and found Rezansoff perched at the back door and moved to puck over to him quickly for the tap-in.

The visitors regained a one-goal lead just 2:44 into the third period when Drew Cleereman scored off a pass from John Nugent.

Rather than hang their heads, the Lions fought back hard and 2:12 later, sophomore winger Cale Markham found a way to sneak a shot past George Argiropoulos to even things at 2-2.

Burcar liked the fight the Lions showed throughout the weekend.

“We like the way our team is playing right now,” said Burcar. “We battled all night.”

The Lions had a great scoring chance late in regulation when Randell found Hannon in the left circle for a quick wrist shot, but Argiropoulos snatched it out of the air with his glove. Randell and Hannon had good looks late in the first period as well as both had scoring chances before the puck squirted to freshman defenseman Dylan Paavola in the high slot, but Paavola could not react to the play fast enough to beat Argiropoulos.

Finlandia was whistled for nine penalties on the night, including three on the final sequence.

“All we ask for, from the players and coaches, is be consistent,” Burcar said. “We didn’t get that (Saturday). That was throughout the entire game.

“We don’t want to make excuses, but it was a hard night to fight through.”

Scoring

Lake Forest 1 0 1 1 – 3

Finlandia 1 0 1 0 – 2

First period

1, LF, Will Lebel (John Nugent, Drew Cleereman), 19:11

Second period

2, FU, Alex Rezansoff (Connor Hannon, Teddy Randell), PP, 6:32

Third period

3, LF, Cleereman (Nugent, Nolan Carothers), 2:44

4, FU, Cale Markham (Tyler Watungwa, Adam Wammes), 4:56

Overtime

5, LF, Kyler Magus (Josh Giacomin, Austin Aksoy), :56

Saves

LF, Argiropoulus 10 10 7 0 – 27

FU, Gloss 7 6 13 1 – 26

Power plays

LF: 0/5; FU: 1/2

Penalties

LF: 3/6; FU: 9/26

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