The 14th-ranked Milwaukee School of Engineering Raiders skated away with a big MCHA conference win Saturday afternoon as they beat the No. 6 Adrian Bulldogs 6-1 in a battle of the MCHA’s elite.
The Raiders got an outstanding performance from goaltender Connor Toomey, who made 31 saves on 32 shots, including several huge keys saves in the first period.
“He’s our rock back there,” said Raiders coach Mark Ostapina. “I can’t say enough about Connor as a student, player and a person.”
The Raiders’ power play got the first goal of the game at the 13:32 mark of the first when Jordan Keizer beat Adrian goalie James Hamby.
“We were just moving the puck today on the power play,” said Ostapina.
Toomey came up huge for the Raiders throughout the rest of the period. Every time the Bulldogs started to gain a little bit of momentum, Toomey was there.
As the first period ended, MSOE held a 1-0 lead.
Just like the night before, MSOE struck early in the second period as Josh Keizer scored 51 seconds into the period to go up 2-0.
Kevin Balaas got Adrian’s lone goal of the night less than a minute later as he cut the MSOE lead to 2-1, but that would be as close as the Bulldogs would get throughout the rest of the game.
The Raiders would extend their lead to 4-1 by the end of the second period.
The third period was more of the same as the Raiders scored two more goals to push the score to 6-1.
As the final horn sounded, the Raiders handed the Bulldogs their worst home loss in the history of the program.
“Today, their three best players, Keizer, Keizer and Toomey, were better than ours,” said Adrian coach Ron Fogarty. “Plain and simple.”
With the win, MSOE draws two points closer to Adrian in the MCHA standings as the season winds down to the last few weekends.
