Falcons soar in weekend sweep of Finlandia

MEQUON, Wis. – The CUW men's hockey team brought out the brooms with a weekend sweep of Finlandia. The CUW offense exploded for a program-best nine goals in a 9-2 victory. The victory pushes the Blue and White to 8-4-1 and 4-3-1 in the NCHA.

"They boys played great today," said head coach Jasen Wise. "We got scoring from all four line and played solid in the "D" zone. I was proud of them for staying out of the behind the play issue. We stayed focused and got the much needed two points."

The Falcons struck first on the penalty kill, six minutes into the game. Sophomore Brandon MacKinnon (Etobicoke, Ont.)  smacked the Finlandia goalie's water bottle on a two-on-one with senior Jim Pearson (Ashton, Ont.). Sophomore Thomas Dyball (Papillion, Neb.) poked the puck free to start the breakaway.

The Lions tied the game six minutes later.

Two minutes later, Junior Cole Pickup (Victoria, B.C.) had a top-shelf shot from the circle to give the Falcons the lead for the rest of the evening. Senior Josh Adkins (Victoria, B.C.) and freshman Alex Way (Ottawa, Ont.) added the assists.

Freshman Brandon Picard (Montreal, Que.) was the recipient of a cross-ice pass from sophomore Luc Kreuser (Wisconsin Rapids, Wis.) to beat the keeper.

Sophomore Cory Dennis (Madison, Wis.) added another goal 91 seconds into the second period off passes from Alex Way and Brandon Picard.

Jim Pearson snuck the puck past the Finlandia keeper after a backhanded pass from junior Andrej Buchko (Peoria, Ill.).

Andrej Buchko then scored his first goal of the season off a pass from Brandon MacKinnon.

Finlandia scored its second goal of the night on the power play.

With 26.9 left in the second period, junior Nick Guiney (Victoria, B.C.) tapped in the goal from passes from senior Dante Hahn (Victoria, B.C.) and freshman Lucas Hefty (Oregon, Wis.).

The assist gave Hahn his 60th career point and became the all-time leader in program history. He also leads program history with 50 assists.

Sophomore Bo Didur (West Vancouver, B.C.) earned the victory with 26 saves in the first 40 minutes. Sophomore Erik Schuette (Olathe, Kan.) secured seven saves in the third period.

Brandon Picard blasted the eighth goal of the day at the 14:53 mark of the third period off tic-tac-toe passes from junior Braydon Barker (Red Deer, Alta.) and Luc Kreuser.

Junior Nick Guerra (Victoria, B.C.) closed the scoring of the power play, with Dante Hahn and Braydon Barker adding the assists.

The nine CUW goals are a program record, tying the record set on Nov. 24, 2018 at Bethel.

The Blue and White also tied the program record with 16 assists.

The Falcons had eight goal scorers with Brandon Picard being the only Falcon to score two goals. The eight different scorers is a program record.

The weekend sweep is the second NCHA sweep of the season, with the first at St. Scholastica.

Despite being outshot through the first two periods, CUW outshot the Lions, 38-33. Nick Guerra led CUW with six shots.

Dante Hahn led CUW with 11 faceoff victories.

With the four points on the weekend, the Falcons jumped Trine in the NCHA standings, the two teams will meet next weekend in Indiana.