Harris Cup Semifinals Preview: NCAA Men’s Hockey Set For Battle Trine Saturday Night

ADRIAN, Mich. The Adrian College NCAA men’s ice hockey team will host Trine University in the semifinals of the NCHA Harris Cup on Saturday night. The Bulldogs enter the weekend ranked No. 3 in the USCHO.com poll and ranked No. 4 in the Pairwise Rankings. Trine is ranked 15th in the USCHO.com poll and 16th in the Pairwise poll.

Last weekend, the Bulldogs swept Concordia University Wisconsin in the NCHA quarterfinals, while Trine beat MSOE in the quarterfinals after forcing a minigame. Last Friday’s win was 200^th career win for head coach Adam Krug. Krug currently has the highest winning percentage of any active head coach in any NCAA division. Krug’s winning percentage is 11^th all-time in NCAA hockey history. Of the ten coaches before Krug in all-time winning percentage, the coach with the most games coached only coached 37 games.

The Bulldogs and Thunder met in a two-game series in November, with the Bulldogs winning the opener 3-2 in overtime on the road. The next night, Trine came to the Arrington Ice Arena and stunned the Bulldogs, defeating them 6-2. The second game of the series marked the first time in program history that Trine beat Adrian in an all-time total of 19 games.

During one game of the series Ty Enns scored a pair of goals for the Bulldogs Matus Spodniak collect the overtime winner. In the second game, Enns scored his third goal of the weekend, but Trine responded with six unanswered goals. Jacob Somers scored with less than two minutes to play to make it 6-2, Trine. Dershahn Stewart won the overtime game with 15 saves Nic Tallarico picked up the loss on day two with 23 saves.

As a team, Adrian leads the country in several categories. The Bulldogs lead Division III in scoring at 5.67 per goal, with 436 points, 283 assists and a 43.5% power play percentage. Adrian has a weekend where they scored 10 power-play goals in one game to tie an NCAA record. Spodniak continues to lead the country as he has all season. He is averaging 1.00 goals per game and 1.89 points per game, which also leads the nation. In power play points, Enns leads the country with 13 power play goals and Spodniak with another 11. As a team, Adrian has scored a total of 60 power play goals during the year.

Spodniak has collected 51 points with 27 goals and 24 assists this season. Enns is next on the team with 38 points and 18 goals and 20 assists. Sam Ruffin has scored 11 goals and 22 assists Alessio Luciani (9G, 22A), Mathew Rehding (9G, 17A), Ryan Pitoscia (12G, 13A) and Bradley Somers (6G, 19A).

Tallarico has appeared in the most matches of the season in goal with 16 matches played and 14 starts. He has a 2.55 goals-against average with 311 saves and a .899 save percentage. His record on the year is 11-3-0 with the team’s only shutout.

Adrian and Trine will drop the puck on Saturday, February 25th at 7:00 PM at the Arrington Ice Arena. The winner of the one-game semifinal will advance to the Harris Cup final to face the winner of Aurora University and St. Norbert College. For tickets to Saturday’s contest, contact the Adrian College Box Office at 517-265-5161 ext. 5011 or by clicking HERE.