The ACHA Div. II Ice Lions suffered two losses during the weekend that snapped their four-game winning streak, and may hinder their chances to climb up from their current ACHA Div. II ninth place ranking in the northeast division.
The Lions (5-5) were defeated 4-3 by Indiana University of Pennsylvania on Friday evening at the Galactic Ice Arena in Altoona, and suffered a humiliating 6-4 loss to No. 13 University of Pennsylvania at the Greenberg Sports Complex on Saturday night.
"I will probably be making some drastic changes in the next few days," Ice Lions head coach Mo Stroemel said. "It's time to shake things up."
The Lions and IUP were knotted in a 1-1 tie as they headed into the final period, but a brief defensive lapse on the part of Lions allowed IUP to score three goals in a five minute span.
"That five minutes killed us," Ice Lions captain and junior defenseman Dave Jones said.
The Lions rallied late in the game, but time ran out and their comeback attempt fell short.
On Saturday night the futility continued for the Lions. Penn scored 26 seconds into the contest when center Whit Matthews rolled the puck past Ice Lion goaltender Brian Gratz to give Penn a 1-0 lead.
Ice Lions forward Eric Ritter responded less than two minutes later with a blast that blazed past Penn goaltender Adam Kweskin and tied the score at a goal apiece. Penn would add another goal late in the period to go up 2-1 before the intermission.
The next period turned out to be completely disastrous for an Ice Lions team that usually dominates the second period of play. Penn capitalized on breakdowns in the Ice Lions' defensive zone to score three goals within an eight minute span to go up 5-1.
"It seemed the couple of times we did have a defensive lapse it killed us," Jones said.
The Lions managed to work a nice set play that resulted in a goal by Ice Lions left winger Doug Marsteller late in the period, but the Lions found themselves in a situation similar to the previous night by being down by three goals in the final period.
The Lions started to show more signs of life midway through the third period when forward Jordan Katz made a determined run on goal and scored unassisted to cut the Penn lead to 5-3. Forward J.T. D'Alessandro added more momentum to the Ice Lion rally five minutes later with a goal that cut the deficit to one goal. However, another defensive breakdown with 5:05 remaining in the game extinguished all hopes for a comeback as Matthews picked up the hat trick with his third goal to give Penn the 6-4 victory.
"The team came together in the end," Gratz said. "It was my mistakes that were the difference in the game, nobody else's."
