BENSENVILLE, Ill. – The Roosevelt University men's hockey team split an ACHA Division 1 series with Northern Illinois University, losing by the score of 7-4 on Friday, January 7 and winning 7-2 on Saturday, January 8 at The Edge in Bensenville, Ill. After the weekend series, the Lakers are now 4-16 on the year.
Northern Illinois took control of Friday night's game in the first period, jumping out to a 3-0 lead in the opening 13 minutes before Turner Cepuritis got Roosevelt on the board with just under two minutes left to go on assists from Andrew Bailey and Tim Laskowski. However, the Huskies restored their three-goal lead with a late tally with 12 seconds remaining in the period.
In the second period, Northern Illinois increased its lead to 5-1 at the 13:33 mark with the Lakers answering back at 15:04 on a Griffin Lehet goal with assists going to Zach Brumm and Nate Brown. The Huskies added another late goal at 18:04 to lead 6-2 at the second intermission.
Early in the third period, the Lakers made it a 6-3 contest with Anthony Trankina registering a goal on an Andrew Werniak assist, and then RU pulled to within 6-4 on a Cade Swygert goal at 12:20 with Laskowski picking up his second assist of the night. Despite holding a large shooting advantage in the period, the Lakers could not get any closer and the Huskies added an empty net goal with 30 seconds to play for the 7-4 final score.
The Lakers showed a different side on Saturday night, scoring just over three minutes into the first period on Brumm's first goal of the season with assists from Tanner Hallett and Werniak. That 1-0 lead held throughout and RU went into the second period with the slight lead.
The second period was all Roosevelt with the home team scoring four goals to take control of the game. Brown put the Lakers up 2-0 at the 8:36 mark with his first goal of the year on an assist by Trankina, but the Huskies answered back just over a minute later to make it a 2-1 contest. However, the Lakers came back with three goals in a four minute span to take a 5-1 advantage. Jake Hermann scored at 10:11 on a Brown assist, Josef Martancik added a goal at 12:39 on assists by Werniak and Hermann, and Lehet closed out the period's scoring at 13:55 with assists going to Swygert and Martancik.
Northern Illinois pulled to within 5-2 at the 7:43 mark of the third period, but the Lakers shut out the Huskies the rest of the way, adding an unassisted goal by Cepuritis and a late goal by Rocco Garnello on a Martancik assist for the 7-2 victory.
GAME 1 DETAILS
Score: Northern Illinois 4 2 1 7
Roosevelt 1 1 2 4
Date: January 8, 2022
Location: The Edge | Bensenville, Ill.
KEY STATS
GAME 2 DETAILS
Score: Northern Illinois 0 1 1 2
Roosevelt 1 4 2 7
Date: January 8, 2022
Location: The Edge | Bensenville, Ill.
KEY STATS
NEXT UP
The Lakers host Davenport University (Mich.) in a weekend series on Friday, January 14 and Saturday, January 15. Puck drop is scheduled for 7:15pm on both nights at The Edge in Bensenville, Ill.
