Lions Roller Hockey Pulls the Daily Double
GPCIHL April 9th, 2007 at 6:16PMLions Roller Hockey Pulls the Daily Double
St. Charles
,
â??You must have the right guys mentally. There are some very talented players that might not be able to play on this team because of their desire to be THAT guy,â? said head coach Ron Beilsten.
Lindenwood roller hockey shines as Lions take home a DI championship with a 12-2 win over
â??What makes this so special for us seniors was the fact that we got to win this one in front of our home fans. Their was quite a few people around school who have not seen us play, but this championship gave a lot of those people a chance to see what we are all about,â? said senior captain Greg Thompson.
Freshman Kyle Gouge (
Wentzville
,
MO
) paced the Lions offense over
Rhode Island
with three goals. Senior Greg Thompson (
Bayport
,
NY
) added a goal and three assists. And junior Tommy Bruce (
Mt. Sinai
,
NY
) added two goals and one assist in the Lions win.
Senior goaltenders Brian Coleman (
St. Peters
,
MO
) and Ryan Viamontes (
Boynton Beach
,
FL
) split time to earn the win for the Lions.
Beilsten talked about his senior class that finished their careers with their fourth straight championship, â??For the most part you will lose seniors every year and you turn the page. But this group was unique in the sense that they all had a unique contribution to the team. They did a real good job teaching the younger guys how to play and conduct themselves on and off the rink and to represent LU in the right way.â?
The Lions power play was a key component to their success converting 3 of 5 chances in the finals. They converted 15 of 24 power play chances during the tournament for a 62.5% clip.
â??The coaching staff stressed to us all year that the game of roller hockey now is all about power play and penalty kill. We worked hard all year to make sure we had those two areas down to a T,â? said Thompson.
Lindenwood swept through pool play by outscoring their opponents 33-1. The Lions easily defeated the
University
of
Texas
,
Purdue
University
and
Colorado
State
.
After pool play, Lindenwood started off with SUNY-Buffalo in the round of 16. The Lions defense remained stingy earning their third straight shutout in a 7-0 win. A strong power play helped the Lions to a 7-2 win over the
University
of
Michigan
in the quarter-finals. The Lions were tested late after building a 6-0 lead, but held on to a 6-3 semi-final win over Rochester Institute of Technology.
â??Some of the seniors on this years team started with me four years ago and more than any other year I hated to see it end,â? said Beilsten.
The Lions ended the season with a perfect 30-0-0 record and ran their consecutive game winning streak to 90 games.
â??People think that we win because we have the best players, but what they donâ??t know about our work ethic. We work hard in practice to prepare and that credit goes to our coaching staff. Ron, Jeff, and Ian have great dedication and we are lucky to have a coaching staff with great knowledge of the game,â? said Thompson.
Lindenwood B Gold also swept through tournament play going 6-0-0 to gain their fourth straight national championship.
â??We had a young team this year with only a couple of veterans, but a key for us was our returning guys getting their championship rings. That gave our team the confidence and the determination to go out and win another championship,â? said coach Jon Hilke.
They dominated pool play by outscoring their opponents 35-6. They beat
Senior goaltender Adam Traw (
St. Peters
,
MO
) again was the backbone for the Lions. He won all six games between the pipes for Lindenwood. Freshman Mark Ell (
St. Peters
,
MO
), junior Zach Reis (
Oakville
,
MO
) and junior Dave Easterbrook (
Brampton
,
ONT
) paced the Lions offense tournament throughout the tournament.
â??Traw has been the backbone of this team for the last three years and he has gotten better every time he touched the floor. He had an outstanding tournament, but really it was Adam Traw being Adam Traw,â? said Hilke.The Gold Squad finished the season with a
27-2-1
record.
###
For more information about either of the Lindenwood Roller Hockey teams please contact Derek Schaub at
636.949.4945
or [email protected].