Skip to Content, Navigation, or Footer.
Tuesday, March 19
The Indiana Daily Student

sports

Hoosiers fall to Life University

The hockey team is still trying to figure out what happened this weekend.\nFifty-four minutes into Friday night's game, the Hoosiers were comfortably holding on to a 4-2 lead over the defending American Collegiate Hockey Association Division II champions, Life University. Sophomore goalie Charlie Pulley was a force in the net, robbing the Running Eagles on several opportunities. The Hoosier offense was on, as the previously struggling power play unit converted for all four IU goals. But as the seconds on the clock ticked away in the third period, the Hoosiers began to unravel. \nIU took two consecutive penalties that led to Life goals, and suddenly the Hoosiers' thus far dominating game had been nullified in a tie. With just three minutes remaining, a Life defender flipped a puck that was apparently headed over top of the Hoosier net.\n"I don't know what the ref was looking at," senior defenseman Adam Federman said. "It just knocked everybody down with a minute and a half to go. It deflates the whole team."\nSuddenly down 5-4, the Hoosiers pulled their goalie in a desperate attempt to spark some offense. But the damage had already been done, as Life scored on the open net to close the scoring at 6-4.\n"When you're winning the whole game, it's hard to play catch-up for a minute and a half," Federman said. "That was a heartbreaker."\nThat one goal not only gave the Hoosiers their first defeat, it completely wiped out their confidence. They came out for Saturday night's game looking flat and found themselves down 3-0 at the end of the first.\n"I really feel like we lost Saturday night's game in the last five minutes on Friday," coach Rich Holdeman said. "The guys were pretty devastated. They didn't really play with the kind of intensity we needed. We could have salvaged the weekend, but we were still kind of licking our wounds from the night before."\nThe Hoosiers began to vent their frustration in the third period, when Federman, senior forward Bryan Grant and junior defenseman Andy Bauermeister were all ejected for an altercation. Life University freshman Lance Haines took a cheap shot at sophomore goaltender Josh Block, and a fight ensured.\n"He hit our goalie; that's a no-no in hockey," Federman said. "Andy went up and got in his face, then I came in. I turned around and there's a guy flying in at me, so I just took a swing, and his helmet ended up flying off."\nThe Hoosiers received even more bad news as junior defenseman Tim McMahon and freshman defenseman Jamie Dillon were hobbled by hip and hand injuries respectively. The Hoosiers went on to lose 7-0. For the second consecutive season, IU was swept by the Running Eagles.\n"Friday, we played 55 minutes of really good hockey and five minutes of terrible hockey. In a 60 minute game, you're gonna lose like that," said Grant. "I don't even know what to say about Saturday, it was ugly."\nGrant contributed one of the few positive notes of the weekend, although he didn't figure in on much of the Hoosier offense, he seemed unphased by a shoulder injury that left him questionable for both games.\n"It's still a little sore, but I made it through the weekend," he said.\nThe Hoosiers begin Great Midwest Hockey League action against Ferris State and Michigan State.

Get stories like this in your inbox
Subscribe