Adrian men, women crowned NCHA champions

By @StefanKubus –

It couldn’t have been a better weekend for Adrian hockey.

Saturday night saw the men’s team defeat the top-ranked St. Norbert, 4-1, to repeat as NCHA Harris Cup champions. With the victory, the Bulldogs earned an automatic bid into the NCAA Division III tournament.

Freshman Bryan Yim opened the scoring with 1:11 left in the opening period, capitalizing on a turnover which led to a breakaway that saw Yim go forehand-backhand to score.

Freshman goalie Kevin Entmaa stopped 23 shots in 31:49 before he was forced to leave the game with an injury. Junior Tyler Parks replaced him and stopped 15 of 16 the rest of the way to help record the win.

Sophomore Taylor McCloy extended the Bulldogs’ lead to 2-0 at 16:07 of the second stanza with a power-play marker. Freshman Connor Armour and junior Jeremy Olinyk added insurance goals in the third period to close out the win.

Adrian topped St. Scholastica in the semifinal series to get to the title game against St. Norbert, taking 4-2 decisions on back-to-back nights Feb. 26-27.

The Bulldogs had three representatives named to the All-Tournament Team, as well. Forward Austin Hervey and defenseman Cory Dunn were named to the men’s All-Tournament Team, while Chris Leone was named MVP.

On Monday, it was announced that the team had earned a first-round bye in the tournament and will host Wisconsin Stevens-Point in the quarterfinals March 19.

But it wasn’t just the men making noise over the weekend.

The women’s program also played St. Norbert in the final round of the NCHA playoffs and came out on top with a 2-0 shutout victory Sunday afternoon. That earned the Bulldogs the NCHA Slaats Cup, finishing the season with an overwhelming 25-2-1 record.

After neither team could break the deadlock in the first two periods, defenseman Shelly Czarnowczan put Adrian on the board at 11:49 of the frame. With 1:30 left, Kaylyn Schroka sealed the victory with an empty-netter.

Like the men’s team, the women’s team took down St. Scholastica in the semifinal with 4-1 and 4-0 victories on its way to the championship game. Goaltender Jade Walsh stopped a combined 71 of 72 shots in the tournament, earning a pair of shutouts.

Schroka, Czarnowczan and Kristin Lewicki were named to the All-Tournament Team. Walsh was named tournament MVP.

It was announced Monday that the women’s team is set to face Elmira in the first round of the NCAA Division III tournament on Saturday night.