Finlandia forward Matteo Ybarra carries the puck into the offensive zone during a game against Trine Saturday at the Houghton County Arena in Hancock. (David Archambeau/For the Gazette)

Finlandia shutout in loss Saturday, 5-0

HANCOCK — Frustration boiled over Saturday afternoon at the Houghton County Arena as the Finlandia Lions men’s hockey team dropped their second straight game to the No. 19 Trine Thunder. A three-goal third period that was mired with eight penalties by the Lions made life difficult for the team as they tried to salvage the weekend series

Alternate captain Max Messier was disappointed with his team’s effort in the game’s final 20 minutes.

“I think we started really strong and then just fell off as the game went on,” he said. “As time went on, we just kind of slowly fell apart, didn’t battle as hard, weren’t making the plays, and then we started to get dumb at the end.”

After battling back and forth in a 5-3 loss on Friday in the series opener, the Lions looked good out of the gates Saturday. Junior winger P.J. Donelly had a scoring chance about two and a half minutes when he had an initial shot blocked. He got his own rebound and fired another shot that Thunder goaltender Kevin Kozma stopped. Messier jumped on a rebound and nearly put that one home, but again Kozma made the save.

Freshman winger Matteo had a scoring chance of his own 24 seconds later, but his backhand was stopped by Kozma as well.

From there, the Lions (2-11-1 overall, 1-7 NCHA) continued to pressure the Thunder, forcing turnovers. They also drew a pair of power plays, but were unable to find the net on either chance.

After the second power play ended, Tyler Fox, who was in the penalty box, joined the rush and eventually found himself in front of Lions goaltender Dakota Meyer. He beat Meyer at 17:34.

Late in the opening frame, the Lions had a lengthy 5-on-3 power play that carried over into the first two minutes of the second period, however, they were unable to find the net.

The Thunder (11-5-1 overall, 6-4 NCHA) struck just over two minutes later when Drew Welsch struck on the rush from the slot at 4:28.

The Lions settled back in defensively from there and held firm against constant pressure from the Thunder.

Captain Phil Schader and alternate captain Nate Holm both had quality scoring chances in the closing minutes, but neither found the net, leaving the Lions with a two-goal deficit heading into the third.

Justin Meers and Welsch scored a minute apart at 7:53 and 8:53 to put the game out of reach. Welsch’s second goal of the night came on the power play.

“It’s super frustrating. because it feels like we’re in most of these games, and we’re getting better, and we’re right there,” Messier said, “and then when we take a step back like that. It really sucks because we are getting better, but we just didn’t finish it tonight.”

The Thunder added one more goal late from Sam Antenucci to seal the win at 17:52.

Meyer made 37 saves for the Lions in the loss.

Finlandia drops close game Friday to the Thunder

It was all left on the ice as the Lions lost 5-3 to the Thunder, Friday afternoon at the Houghton County Arena.

Trine drew first blood, scoring at the 4:53 mark of the first period. With 10 seconds left in the opening period, freshman Owen Schmidt tied it up with a power play goal.

With just 2:50 gone in the second period, sophomore Milos Todorovic scored off a pass from sophomore Brendan Erickson. That put the Lions up 2-1.

Meyer made several great saves to keep Finlandia up. The Thunder managed to sneak one in at the 15:35 mark.

Fifty-four seconds later, Ybarra fired the puck into the net. That put Finlandia back up, 3-2.

With 26 seconds left in the second, Trine scored to tie it at 3-3. The Thunder went back up at the 5:44 mark of the final period.

Midway through the period, Todorovic had a goal robbed by a great play from the goalie.

Trine scored an empty netter with 50 seconds left to seal the game.

Finlandia was aggressive on defense, blocking 11 shots. Sophomore Nick Solema had 12 faceoff wins. Meyer had 28 saves.

Struggling to build

The Lions, who defeated Northland on Tuesday, were unable to build on that win over the weekend with the two losses to Trine.

“It’s frustrating because, at the end of the day, we’re pushing for playoffs, and these are important games,” said Messier. “The more we lose, the more we have to win as time goes on. So, it’s frustrating because it would be huge to take points from the top teams like this so that we can really build on the teams lower in the standings.”