Angola, Indiana – The final regular season weekend of NCAA hockey for Adrian College men’s and women’s team is upon us tonight and tomorrow, with a home-and-home series on tap between the Bulldogs and the Trine University Thunder. 96.5fm The Cave will be on the road for the men’s game tonight and women’s game tomorrow evening. Here is a preview of the weekend:
For the men…
Records:
No. 12/10 Adrian 16-7-0 (10-6-0 NCHA) 9-1-0 Road
No. 7/9 Trine 17-5-1 (11-4-1 NCHA) 9-0-0 Home
All-Time Series:
Adrian College leads the all-time series, 22-2, and have won the last three games vs. Trine. AC is 8-2 in their last ten matchup with TU.
Key Players for Adrian:
Ian Amsbaugh leads the Bulldogs in scoring with 37 points (12 goals, 25 assists)
Ryan Pitoscia (12), Bradley Somers (11), and Frank Tafelski (10) have double-digit goals for the ‘Dawgs
Adrian Goalie Dershahn Stewart has a 14-6 record, with two shut-outs. He has a 2.79 goals against average, and 91.1% save percentage
Key Players for Trine:
Logan Furstenau leads the Thunder in scoring with 19 points (10 goals, 9 assists)
Sam Antenucci has 18 points, good for second most on the team. No other Thunder skater has double-digit goals this season.
Trine features two goaltenders, Cristian Wong-Ramos and Kyle Kozma. Wong Ramos has an 8-2 record, with a 1.59 goals against average and a 92.6% save percentage. Kozma has a 7-2-1 record, with a 2.66 goals against average and an 88.3% save percentage.
NCHA Playoff Scenarios…
Adrian has clinched a top-four spot and a home first-round playoff series. The Bulldogs have the simplest path out of any team to determine their playoff seeding. Adrian must take all six points from Trine in its season-ending series this weekend and then they would tie the Thunder with 35 points and hold the head-to-head tiebreaker to move up to the No. 3 seed. Anything less, the Bulldogs will be locked into the No. 4 seed.
Trine has clinched a top-four spot and a home first-round playoff series. The Thunder can finish second, third or fourth in the standings as they head into a marquee showdown series with Adrian to close the regular season. Trine clinches at least the No. 3 seed with just one point in its series with the Bulldogs. If Adrian sweeps all six points from Trine, the Bulldogs would claim the No. 3 seed with the head-to-head record tiebreaker and slide the Thunder down to the fourth seed. Trine needs to finish with more points than St. Norbert to move up to the No. 2 seed.
For the women…
Records:
No. 7/13 Adrian 18-3-2 (13-1-2 NCHA) 8-0-1 Away Record
Trine 8-13-2 (5-9-2 NCHA) 5-4-1 Home Record
All-Time Series:
The Bulldogs lead the all-time series with a 22-0 mark vs. Trine
Key Players for Adrian:
Riley Johnson and Maya Roy lead Adrian in scoring, each with 32 points (Johnson has 14 goals, 18 assists. Roy has 5 goals, 27 assists)
Courtney Ben paces AC in terms of goals scored, with 16 tallies this season. Six Adrian skaters have at least 10 goals (Johnson, Ben, Aileena Dopheide-11, Tia Lascelle-10, Emma Simon-11, and Zoe Lohrei-10)
In goal for Adrian, Annie Gilbert has a 13-3-2 record this season, with a 1.08 goals against average, and a 93.4% save percentage
Key Players for Trine:
Kailey Mleko has 20 points (13 goals, 7 assists) to lead Trine in scoring
Payton Hans is the only other double-digit goal scorer for the Thunder
Annie Kindseth has been the featured goalie for Trine this season, with a record of 7-10-2, 2.05 goals against average, and a 94.0% save percentage
NCHA Playoff Scenarios…
Adrian enters its season-finale series with Trine and could be the first, second or third seed in the Slaats Cup. Adrian can finish as the No. 1 seed if they tie St. Norbert in points or finish with more points than the Green Knights. Adrian has a 1-0-1 record against St. Norbert as the tiebreaker from the regular season series. Adrian could drop to the No. 3 seed if they don’t secure a point over the weekend and Concordia Wisconsin wins six points against Marian. If Adrian and Concordia Wisconsin ended in a tie, the Falcons would hold the head-to-head tiebreaker because of its 4-2 points advantage from that series.
Trine enters the final weekend seventh in the standings with 17 points. The Thunder can finish anywhere from fifth, to being the first team left out of the playoffs in ninth. Trine needs two or more points from its season-ending series with Adrian to clinch a playoff spot. Trine holds the head-to-head tiebreaker on MSOE if both teams finish tied with the same number of points. If Trine, Lawrence and MSOE finished in a three-way tie, Trine would be the No. 7 seed with the best record amongst tied teams and then MSOE would get in as the No. 8 seed after garnering four points to Lawrence’s two in their head-to-head series.