Lindenwood beats Grand Canyon to take the top seed in Division I

AUBURN The National Collegiate Roller Hockey Association preliminaries ended early Friday at Norwegian Savings Bank Arena and the final Division I pool match featured two of the nation's top teams, the Lindenwood University Lions and the Grand Canyon University Lopes.

The Lions (20-0-0) kept their undefeated season alive with a 4-1 victory to earn the top seed in the elimination round and a bye to the semifinals on Saturday.

We covered it and I'm pretty sure they did too. “We treated that game like a playoff game,” Lindenwood coach Ron Beilsten said. The winner of that game got the No. 1 seed and a bye, which is a big deal. It was good to have a game like that. It's preparing for who's next.

The bye gave Lindenwood (St. Charles, Missouri) Friday night off. The two-time defending champion Lions will not play on court one until 11:30 am on Saturday. Meanwhile, Grand Canyon (Phoenix, Ariz.) has a quarterfinal match Friday night.

The Lopes (22-1-3) are the first team this week to challenge the Lions, who have won their first three games of the national tournament by scores of 10-0, 13-0 and 12-0.

Grand Canyon goaltender Maxim Currie was particularly stout, making many point-blank and acrobatic saves to keep the game scoreless well into the second period. Currie finished with 22 saves in the game.

Their goalkeeper was great, Beilsten said. We stuck to what we were doing: don't stop, don't start doing too much, all the basic stuff and rely on the guys for what they do.

The Lindenwood players went to their goalie, Marky Hager, for tips on how to solve Currie.

We were talking to our goalkeeper: how do we score on this guy?' said Lindenwood forward Nathan Durrans. Our goalkeeper said: He is small, he moves very well from left to right. When you get in, you just shoot the puck and find a spot.”

Durrans played a key role in the Lions attack on Friday afternoon, with two goals and an assist.

He set up the Lions' first goal when he set up Connor Bradley for a power-play goal 4:56 into the second period.

Durrans set up a highlight powerplay goal a few minutes later, going through his legs with a shot from the slot for a 2-0 lead.

Jackson Wozniak helped set up the goal.

(Wozniak) gave it to me across the crease, and I had it right in front of me. I couldn't see the goalkeeper, Durrans said. I thought he was covering the other side, and the other side of the net was open. The only way I can get there is to put it through my legs. I went back to the bench and everyone said, 'Don't you like the empty net on your near side?'

Grand Canyon got back into the game when Nick Ettelbrick unleashed a long-range slap shot that got past Hager 8:25 into the second period.

The game remained 2-1 until early in the third when Lindenwood's Bennett Blake crashed the net and tapped in a pass from Clayton Liefield for a 3-1 lead. Christian Acosta was credited with a secondary assist.

Lindenwood went 2-for-3 on the power play and Grand Canyon went 0-for-2.

The Lopes made a late push but were unable to capitalize. On a power play, top scorer Ruben Gonzalez called the post, only for Hager (12 saves) to rob him 30 seconds later with an extended save.

Durrans put the game on edge when he made a defensive play to deny himself a breakaway opportunity, then fired the puck into the open net for a shorthanded goal 8:49 into the third period.

They got that one-timer that hit the post, and they got it again, Durrans said. Marky made an incredible backdoor save, which fired me up when I saw it. I said I had to get out and do something. (Grand Canyons Aydin) Schwartz got the puck at the top (of the zone). I've been watching this guy all year. I kind of know what he's going to do, he's going to film this, and I blocked it out. It hit the inside of my shin guard and I was off to the races.

Beilsten said Durrans showed all his tools to lead the Lions to victory.

He's a super-qualified guy and it was all on display today, Beilsten said.

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