Playing on home ice in front of a raucous crowd, Trinity took advantage of superb goaltending from Devon Bobak and timely goals from James Barbour and Devon Tongue to defeat Adrian, 2-1 and advance to the national championship game against Hobart on Saturday.
“It was a great college hockey game,” said Trinity head coach Matt Greason. “Both teams had chances to win the game and we had Devon [Bobak] that made sure we did. [Devon] Tongue had a huge goal taking advantage of his size and reach and we played our game to hold them off right to the end.”
The game started with pace early as the Bantams converted a quick face-off play into a breakaway that was unsuccessful but got the crowd engaged as the pace of play was intense. Physicality was on display as both teams were trying to establish their game and Adrian’s early attacks were thwarted by Bobak and the Trinity defense. With under seven minutes to play in the first period, offensive pressure landed the puck on Connor Sedlak’s stick who made a beautiful cross-ice pass to James Barbour on the hash mark far side and he buried the shot past a diving Dershahn Stewart for a 1-0 lead.
In the second period it was Sedlak again who turned a broken play into a Bantam goal finding Tongue who deked past Stewart’s outreached pad on the backhand and tucked in the puck for a 2-0 lead. Adrian came back hard as Bradley Somers was rewarded for going hard to the net to stuff the puck through Bobak from a beautiful feed to the net from Zachary Heintze and the intermission saw the score sit with just a one-goal differential at 2-1.
The third period saw lots of up-and-down play with missed opportunities, a post or two and some acrobatic saves on both ends of the ice as Bobak and Stewart kept the game at a one goal differential. Trinity received a rare power play opportunity with just under eight minutes in regulation time but could not generate any good shots against Stewart. With over three minutes remaining on the clock, Trinity’s Teddy Griffin went to the penalty box for cross-checking and Adrian had a power play opportunity to level the score. Bobak and the rest of the Trinity penalty kill unit shutdown the Adrian power play keeping shots to the outside and clearing rebounds from dangerous areas. Adrian finally pulled their goalie for the extra attacker in the final minute, but Bobak and his defensive group cleared the zone to run out the clock and seal the victory.
“The game went exactly as I thought it would if we lost,” noted Adrian head coach Adam Krug. “ We just couldn’t get to Bobak. They packed it in and played as a unit and took away a lot of Grade A chances we usually get. We played hard but didn’t get any bounces tonight and their team defense had a lot to do with that.”
With the win, Trinity will play Hobart for the national championship on Saturday night. The Bantams, while playing on home ice, will be the visitors against the defending champion Statesmen.
