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HANCOCK -- Despite having more missed passes than they had shots on goal Friday night, the Finlandia Lions men's hockey team showed a lot of promise in a 2-1 loss to the visiting Wisconsin-River Falls Falcons in their season opening contest at the Houghton County Arena.
Lions head coach Joe Burcar felt there were plenty of positives to take from his team's performance, especially given the number of freshmen and sophomores in the lineup against a veteran Falcons squad.
"It’s just the start," he said. "It’s one game. We talked about it. If this is our worst game, we’re going to have some good things happen to us this year. Let’s just keep building off it.
"This is a group that we don’t have to get down on, the work ethic, as you can see, the work ethic is there. Fixing mistakes is one thing. You can’t fix the work ethic, but we got the work ethic and we’ll fix the mistakes for sure."
UW-River Falls also won 4-1 Saturday to complete the sweep.
For nearly all of the game's first 31:56, it appeared as though the Lions might come away with the victory despite everything. Both teams combined for four penalties, including a major to the Falcons' Josh Martin in the game's first 1:54. Another penalty was whistled on the Falcons' Logan Serverson at the four-minute mark, putting the Lions on a two-man advantage and they made the most of the opportunity.
Assistant captain Phil Schader got the puck in the left corner after a shot from assistant captain Dylan Paavola at the left point was tipped on goal by captain Tyler Watungwa. Schader pushed the puck behind the net to senior winger Sheldon Brett in the right corner. Brett spun quickly and threw the puck out into the slot. The pass caromed off of Falcons goaltender Dean Buchholz and into the net at 4:28.
From there, however, the Falcons took control of the pace of the game, pushing the Lions back towards their end of the rink more often than Burcar liked.
Fortunately for the Lions, fifth year goaltender Marcus Gloss was between the pipes. He stopped 11 Falcons shots in the first period, 11 of 12 in the second, and 10 of 11 in the third, giving the Lions a chance to win.
"He is a huge part of keeping us in it," Burcar said. "When we weren’t, really, really good, he kept us in the game. Every single time, he kept us…I think that’s going to pay off down the road."
Gloss and the Lions held the lead until the 11:56-mark of the middle frame when Sam Anzai won a faceoff back to Gabe Wahl, whose quick shot beat Gloss cleanly.
The game-tying tally came shortly after a lengthy delay where repair crews worked to fix a pane of glass behind Gloss' net. Burcar felt that delay, one of three that delayed various points of the contest, possibly contributed to the Falcons' goal.
After the goal against, Gloss continued to hold the Lions in the contest, and they responded by creating some scoring chances of their own, the best of which came on a power play when freshman defenseman Luke Dobles carried the puck along the blue line until a lane opened up before firing a long shot that Buchholz fought off.
Dobles showed a flair for jumping into the play in the third period when he and Watungwa broke to the Falcons' net while shorthanded. Watungwa flipped a pass over the outstretched Falcons defender, but Dobles could not bury a one-timer.
The Falcons struck for the second time at 10:13 when Noah Roofe beat Gloss from the right circle.
The Lions nearly evened things less than a minute later on the power play. Paavola found a shooting lane from the middle of the blue line and fired a shot that Schader tipped, catching Buchholz off balance. However, the Falcons' netminder managed to get a leg pad on the shot, keeping the visitors in the lead.
UWRF 0 1 1 -- 2
FU 1 0 0 -- 1
First Period--1, FU, Brett (Schader, Watungwa), 4:28, pp.
Second Period--2, UWRF, Wahl (Anzai), 11:56.
Third Period--3, UWRF, Roofe (Ganske, Davis), 10:13.
Saves--UWRF,Buchholz 4-3-4--14. FU, Gloss 11-11-10--32.
Power-play Opportunities--UWRF 0 of 5. FU 1 of 9.
Penalties-minutes--UWRF 11-30. FU 10-20.