Cardinals lose to top-ranked Hope, win big over Lakers

November 6, 2006 —

A day after thrashing its rivals, the Cardinals Club Hockey Team traveled to No. 1 Hope College on Saturday and lost, 7-3.

The loss came after SVSU beat Grand Valley State 11-4 on Friday, a game that the Cardinals were visibly fired up for.

The Cardinals scored six goals in the first 23 minutes and weathered a minor comeback to send the Lakers to 1-5 on the season.

"Coach (Steve Hart) got us fired up before the game," captain Jake Trombley said. "We just wanted to go out there and thump them."

Grand Valley came out fired up as well, scoring less than two minutes into the game off a Stu Mclean goal. The Cardinals responded four minutes later when freshman Pat Miller scored a power-play goal off a pass from fellow freshman Jon Tibaudo.

Trombley scored over five minutes later on the Cardinals' second power play of the night, and the rout was on.

"We were able to keep the momentum going," he explained. "We scored those first couple of goals and we were rolling."

Sophomore Trent Waugh added SVSU's third power-play goal of the period and freshman Nick Halaby chased the Lakers' starting goaltender with a goal off a feed from freshman Chris Landrith.

Unlike a week ago, when the Cardinals squandered a 3-1, first-period lead to Calvin College, they came out strong in the second, scoring twice in the first three minutes to put the Lakers down by five.

The second period saw the Lakers claw within 6-3, but senior Ryan Michaels scored with just less than five minutes to go to put SVSU back up by four.

Sophomore Matt Fogal scored the Cardinals' fourth power-play goal of the night less than a minute into the third to bring the score to 8-3, but the Lakers still had a pulse. A power-play goal by Zach Watkins brought the crowd back into the game and the score to 8-4.

But the Cardinals' top two scorers, Tibaudo and Michaels, put an end to any thoughts of a comeback, scoring 24 seconds apart to build the lead to 10-4.

Tibaudo added a shorthanded goal late in the game for his third hat trick of the season.

The Cardinals' emotional high came down quickly the next night, though, as Hope proved why it was ranked first in the ACHA College Club Hockey Rankings.

Up 1-0, the Cardinals lost sophomore defenseman Adam Munro to a sprained ankle just 13 minutes into the game and were whistled for 10 penalties, not making things any easier against the Flying Dutchmen.

Trombley said if the Cards want to win a rematch on Dec. 2 in Holland, they must cut down on their penalties.

"Their power play is phenomenal," he said. "They are very fast and well disciplined."

The Cardinals got goals from Fogal, Tibaudo, and Michaels.

SVSU travels to seventh-ranked Alpena next week for a Nov. 11 game at 9 p.m.