EIU Hockey1EIU Splits With Ice Bears DIII Ice Bears DIII

December 2, EIU-8 Missouri State-5

EIU traveled to face the Missouri State Ice Bears Division III team on December 2nd and 3rd. EIU, used to playing the Ice Bears Division II team, knew that this series would be their toughest yet. Rookie Jake Armijo stated that the team had really practiced hard the past week to prepare for the upcoming weekend of games. The game started at 9:40 P.M. that Friday and the scoring began 5 minutes into the game with Alex Mundt (Assisted by Ryan Gannon) of the Ice Bears striking first. EIU rallied back just three minutes after when rookie winger Jake Armijo found the net with the help of his veteran linemate Connor Maly. The first period ended with one more tally for EIU from Mike Sorrentino (Assisted by Sam Guttasch). The second period started off with three EIU goals and 2 penalties(Goals: S. Guttasch, C.Cox, T.Shannon; Assists: M.Sorrentino, K.Maras; Penalties: L.Jacobs, J.Salazar). The Ice bears answered back to end the period with a goal from Jack Barrett. The Ice bears continued their rally to start the third period with a powerplay goal from Jack Barrett. This effort was not enough, when EIU's Conner Cox answered back with his second goal of the night (Assisted by D.Abernethy and K.Maras). EIU followed with another tally from M.Sorrentino (Unassisted) which was also his second of the night. Missouri Stated ended the game with another powerplay goal from Ryan Gannon, leaving the score EIU-8 Missouri State D-III-5. Coach Runnion's report: The boys played sloppy to start the game off and had many different mental lapses. We did play well together as a team and a lot more disciplened than they did in previous games; However, we need to continue to take less penalties because our 7 penalties to their 2 is still unacceptable.

Team Goals Assists Shots Penalty Minutes PPG SHG PP % Goalie Save %
EIU 8 8 44 14 0 0 0% 82.14%
Missouri State DIII 5 4 28 4 2 0 28.57% 81.82%


December 3, EIU-6 Missouri State-8

The second and final game of the series, EIU's winning streak of 5 games was finally broken. EIU came out a much stronger team than the last game scoring the first three goals of the game (Goals: Salazar, Armijo, Yurchak)(Assists: Sorrentino, Bartosz, McDonnell). The Ice Bears started slow scoring to end the period, due to a mental lapse from Andrew Teske. However, EIU's Andrew Teske held his team in the game making numerous desparation saves in the many powerplay opportunities Missouri State D-III had. The second period ended at EIU-5 Ice Bears-3. The third began with the momentum on the Missouri State side when they scored 3 powerplay goals. EIU made a vialiant effort to come back when Tim Shannon scored a power play goal with 1:11 left in the game. The wind was taken out of EIU's sails when the Ice Bears scored an empty-net goal with 30 seconds left in the game. Coach Runnion's Report: The boys played alot harder and worked alot more than they did last night. We just were not disciplined and took absolutely way too many penalties. There is no reason we should win a game against a solid team after taking 22 penalty minutes. Looking at the scoreboard, half of their goals were powerplay goals and we had one less total shot than they did. All we can do from here is look forward and continue to build our team.

Team Goals Assists Shots Penalty Minutes PPG SHG PP % Goalie Save %
EIU 6 7 47 22 2 0 40% 85.42%
Missouri State DIII 8 10 48 10 4 0 36.36% 87.23%