Lindenwood University Wins Winter Invitational

Congratulations to the Lindenwood University Lions for their victory at the NCRHA Winter Invitational Tournament, held at Matteson?s Square Garden in St. Peters, MO.  Add this victory to the 2 consecutive NCRHA Division I Championships and 1 CRHL Premier Division Championship.  Lindenwood beat local rival St. Charles CC by a score of 8-2 to win the championship at this mid-season invitational event.

St. Charles would score first, less than 2 minutes into the game, with a powerplay goal by Jay Gregory, assisted by Andy Meade.  Lindenwood would score 4 straight goals in the first and second periods to go up by a score of 4-1.  St. Charles would strike late in the 2nd period with a goal from Jeff Perkins assisted by Jay Gregory.  Lindenwood would score 3 unanswered goals to finish off the game, winning 8-2.  Jeff Hill had 2 goals and 1 assist for Lindenwood, teammates Steve Hewkin and Ian Mueller finished with 1 goal and 2 assists a piece.  Seven different goal scorers on only eight goals illustrate a well-rounded team effort by the Lions.

North Carolina State and St. Louis CC ? Meramec rounded out the Final Four at the event.  NC State arrived at the semifinals by beating Western Michigan 3-2 in a shoot-out.  NC State scored 2 goals in the first period and then sat idle, with Western Michigan chipping away, scoring a powerplay goal halfway through the 2nd period and scoring the tying goal with under a minute remaining in regulation.  NC State scored 2 goals in the shootout, with Western Michigan shut out.

Several teams had good showings, not unlike the North Carolina State team.  The University of Missouri - St. Louis Rivermen played Lindenwood twice, and gave the Lions one of the best games in the tournament.  Lindenwood beat UMSL 3-1 in Round Robin and then the two teams met again in the championship round brackets, with UMSL falling by a score of 6-1.  UMSL also tied Cal Poly SLO 7-7 in Round Robin play.  See the NCRHA Winter Invitational Tournament section of the website for more in-depth information on all 16 teams and full players statistics from the event.

Congratulations once again to the Lindenwood Lions for winning the NCRHA?s 2nd Annual Winter Invitational Tournament.  Thank you to all 16 teams that participated in the event.  The NCRHA looks forward to the National Championships, to be held April 5th through 9th.  Look for an announcement very soon on www.ncrha.org regarding the location of the Collegiate Roller Hockey National Championships 2006.