FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Lindenwood Sweeps Thru to Two Regional Titles

St. Charles, Mo. â?? March 5, 2007 â?? Head Coach Ron Beilsten gathered the team together before their first game of regionals and expressed the importance that this is the start of the second season.  The boys took that to heart as they pounded Illinois State 7-2 in the semi-finals and Mizzou 8-0 in the finals.

â??We played well this weekend and hopefully this continues through to nationals,â? said head coach Ron Beilsten.

Brandon Marchand ( St. Peters, MO) opened the scoring on a nice back door feed from Jeff Hill ( St. Peters, MO) against Illinois State.

Hill put the Lions up 2-0 on a power play goal midway through the first period on a pass from Greg Thompson ( Bayport, NY).

Tommy Bruce ( Mt. Sinai, NY) gave Lindenwood a 3-0 lead going into the first intermission.

Illinois State scored first in the second period, but Lindenwood answered back with a tally from Ian Mueller ( St. Clair, MO).

Hill, Bruce and Derek Tunison ( Warren, MI) each scored goals in the third period to lead the Lions to a 7-2 win over Illinois State.

Ryan Viamontes ( Boynton Beach, FL) got the win between the pipes for the Lions.

Lindenwood was firing on all cylinders in the finals against the University of Missouri-Columbia.  The Lions fired 40 shots on goal and cruised to an 8-0 win to win the Great Plains regional championship.

Just a minute into the game Ian Muller put the Lions up 1-0 on a rebound from a Bruce shot.

Marchand found the back of the net late in the first to give the Lions a 2-0 lead going into the break.  Travis Fudge ( Springfield, MO) found Marchand open in the slot for the one timer goal.

Fudge scored the first of his two second period goals by using his exceptional speed to blow by the Mizzou defense.

Bruce and Kyle Gouge ( St. Peters, MO) also added goals in the second to push the Lions lead to 6-0.

Erick Cantrell ( St. Charles, MO) and Brian Ganz ( Sunnyvale, CA) added third period goals.

Brian Coleman ( St. Peters, MO) stopped all 8 shots he faced to get the shutout win in the finals.

The Lindenwood B Gold team also cruised to the B division regional championship with a 10-0 win over Lindenwood B Black in the semi-finals and a 12-2 win over Meramec B Gold in the finals.

Zach Reis ( Oakville, MO), Tom Mueller ( Florissant, MO), Dave Easterbrook ( Brampton, ONT), Mark Ell ( St. Peters, MO) and Brad Sweeney ( East Point, MI) led the Lions offensively over the weekend.

Goaltender Adam Traw was strong in goal allowing only two goals in the regional tournament.

â??Our Gold team is playing their best hockey right now and are poised to make another run at the national tournament.  Our Black team finished the season strong and they should be proud of their efforts this year.  Having two teams in the four team regional tournament says a lot about the strength and depth of our program,â? said B team assistant coach John Hilke.

The Lions DI and B Gold teams earned an automatic bid to the national tournament with their wins over the weekend.  The national tournament will be played at Mattesonâ??s Tri-Plex in St. Peters from April 4^th to 7^th.

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For more information about the Lindenwood Roller Hockey program please contact Derek Schaub at 636.949.4945 or [email protected]