Sophomore Alessio Luciani registered a four-point afternoon, and freshman teammate Jaden Shields added three, as Adrian never trailed in a 5-1 non-conference victory Saturday over visiting Marian (Wis.) at Arrington Ice Arena.
Adrian outshot the Sabres 38 to 19, including a 12-6 margin in the third period when the Bulldogs blew open a close 2-1 game with three goals. For the second-straight day, Adrian controlled the face-offs by winning 36 of 64 draws. Luciani went 11 of 21 draws, followed by juniors Trevor Coykendall with 8-for-13 and Zach Goberis, 10-for-14.
The Bulldogs clicked on the power play, converting three goals in six man-advantage chances. Junior Rex Moe gave Adrian a quick 1-0 lead just 77 seconds into the contest when he collected a feed from Luciani and put the puck in the back of the net.
After Marian tied it 1-1, Shields put Adrian back on top for good with a goal 1 minute and 9 seconds left in the period. The ‘Dawgs led 2-1 after 20 minutes. The teams played a scoreless second period before Adrian put the game out of reach in the third with a pair of power play goals by Luciani at 5:02 and junior Sam Ruffin at 10:13.
Luciani added an empty-net goal with 2:53 remaining to account for the final scoring. Adrian senior goalie Cameron Gray upped his record to 6-4 with a 17-save effort. Luciani paced the offense with two goals and two assists.
Shields chipped in a goal and two assists from his defensive position. Joining Luciani and Shields with multi-point games for the Bulldogs were Ruffin (1g, 2a) and Moe (1g, 1a). Parker Colley scored Marian’s lone tally on the power play on assists from Mason Richey and Blake Kleiner that tied the score at 1-all at 6:43 into the first period.
Colley led Marian on face-offs, going 11-for-22. Colby Muise had 34 saves in the Marian net. Adrian takes a commanding 28-4-2 all-time series lead over Marian, including 17-2 lifetime on home-ice.
The Bulldogs also were victorious last night, 8-4, to sweep the fellow NCHA member Sabres in this non-conference weekend. Luciani had a 5+2=7 weekend to take over the Adrian scoring lead with eight goals and 11 assists for 19 total points.
Junior Andrew Bellant (17 points) also has 11 assists to equal Luciani for the squad lead. Moe has a team-best 10 goals on the season–just three shy of his sophomore total last season. The 18 shots are the fewest allowed by the Adrian defense this season.
Shields ties his career high with three points in a game (3 assists at Trine, Nov. 7) and extends his current point-scoring streak to five games (2+6=8). He also leads Adrian blueliners with 10 assists and 12 points on the season.
Adrian’s two-game NCHA-South series with Lake Forest originally schedule for next weekend, Feb. 20-21, has been postponed due to COVID protocols. Currently, the Bulldogs will be idle until Feb. 26-27 when they host Aurora here at the Arrington Ice Arena.
This article is comprised of media and information from an Adrian College press release. For more sports, news and entertainment, follow the Midwest Sports Network on Twitter @MWSNsports or like the MWSN page on Facebook.
