Warriors Honor Seniors with Weekend Sweep
FREMONT, Neb. – Taking its home ice for the eighth and ninth times this semester, Midland University hosted Waldorf University on Friday and Saturday inside Sidner Ice Arena. With both teams coming in searching for wins to wrap up the regular season, Midland was able to best Waldorf by an 8-3 margin in the opener and then win a hard-fought battle of Warriors, 1-0 in overtime, in the finale.
FRIDAY: Midland 8, Waldorf 3
In the first game of the weekend, the two teams that share the Warriors mascot played to a 1-1 tie at the first intermission. Waldorf's goal broke open the scoring ledger just past 14 minutes of scoreless hockey. Midland's equalizing goal came off the stick of Hugo Lukacovic at the 17:55 mark of the period. Cody Shearer and Ian McHenry assisted.
After the break in action, Midland came out energized on the attack. Less than four minutes in, McHenry netted the go-ahead goal off a feed from Shearer and Fletcher Chun. Just past the midpoint of the night, Logan Wotton was able to get a breakout while MU was killing off a penalty. He took the pass from Lukacovic and pushed it past the WU goalie for the shorthanded score. Just before the second appearance of the rink's Zamboni, Milan Breczko scored a powerplay goal at the 16:58 mark. Jared Wisley and Zach Eddington were credited with the assists as Midland took a 4-1 lead into intermission.
In the third and final period of the night, Ryan Donovan struck for a pair of goals in the opening minutes. He netted the first at the 1:10 mark and the second at the 2:30 mark. Zak Justice had an assist on both goals while Jack Royer added helper with the first and Eddington helped with the second.
Sandwiched in between Donovan's goals was a score for the visitors at the 1:35 mark. They would tack on another at the 5:17 point of the period. That score proved to be the final of the night and the weekend.
McHenry, who was honored over the weekend as a senior, added his second goal of the night at the 6:51 mark of the third. Wotton and Wisely picked up the assists. The final tally to the scoring ledger on Friday came with 4:47 on the clock as Breczko picked his second goal of the game. Royer and Shearer assisted on the goal to make it an 8-3 victory for Midland.
Nahuel Veyan was in net for the win, collecting 17 saves on the night. Waldorf used a pair of netminders who combined for 47 saves in the loss.
SATURDAY: Midland 1, Waldorf 0 (OT)
Prior to the regular season finale, Midland honored its five seniors of the 2024 graduating class. Zach Eddington, Trevor Timm, Ian McHenry, Jack Royer, and Ryan Donovan were joined on the ice by their families prior to the puck drop of what would prove to be an exciting contest.
Through the first two periods, Midland dominated shots on net with 32 to Waldorf's 12. The play of both goalies was commendable as they each kept clean sheets. In third, the shot discrepancy narrowed as Midland had 14 on target and Waldorf had 11. Both goalies stood firm though as the game went to an overtime period.
In the extra session, which consisted of 3-on-3 play, both teams had chances on net. Midland controlled the puck in its attacking zone for most of the allotted time but Waldorf made one final push as it looked to split the series.
With around a minute to go in before the game went into a shootout, Milan Breczko took control of the puck behind Midland's net. He skated up the right side of the ice, squeezing past his defender and the board. As the clock ticked under the minute mark, he crossed into the slot. Waldorf's last skating defender made a play on the puck but a quick reaction and vision from Breczko saw him put the puck past the goalie on the opposite side of the net. The goal with 56 seconds on the clock sent the Midland players and fans home happy with the 1-0 win and weekend sweep.
Nahuel Veyan picked up his second win of the weekend, saving all 26 of the shots that reached his level. His counterpart had a stellar night in net, stopping the first 50 shots by Midland before allowing the overtime winner.
Midland (11-19-1) will now turn the page to the postseason with the Midwest College Hockey Tournament set to start next weekend. The Warriors will be the 5th seed and will meet up with 4th-seeded McKendree (16-13-0). The teams will play the opening game of the weekend in Bismarck, North Dakota. Puck drop is slated for 4:00 p.m. on Friday, February 16.