Cardinals Sweep Adrian College in Regular Season Finale
SAGINAW, MI – No.5 Saginaw Valley State Cardinals (21-6) enter the MCHC conference playoffs on a high note after sweeping the Adrian College Bulldogs (6-19) in their final weekend of the regular season. At home on Saturday night, the Cardinals dominated, 9-1, and later scraped together a road win by a score of 3-2 on Sunday afternoon.
At 21-6, the Cardinals achieved their best record in a decade and surpassed 20 wins for the fifth time in program history.
Saturday night, two different Cardinals combined for six goals as senior assistant-captain Kyle Kubiak and graduate senior Tyler Russell both bagged a hat trick. Kubiak enters the playoffs with 11 goals and 15 assists, leading all defenseman on the team.
Freshman goaltender Trevor Zielenski was more than comfortable in net against Adrian, saving 23 of 24 shots, securing his first collegiate victory. The second-semester transfer is fitting in nicely as a key piece of the team.
Logan O’Flanagan, Matthew Mcclellan, and Bruce Mclean aided the scoring effort, helping the Cards score nine goals for the third time this season. Saginaw would coast to victory by their largest margin of the year of eight goals.
Game Two on Sunday afternoon was much more a battle as the Cardinals grinded out a 3-2 victory over the Bulldogs on the road.
O’Flanagan picked up where he left off the night before, scoring the first goal of the game just minutes into the contest for Saginaw.
Later in the period, Tyler Russell scored again to give the Cardinals a 2-0 lead halfway through the first. Russell has scored in each of the final six games of the season, bringing his goal total to 20 for the year.
The Cardinals opened up the second period with a second goal from O’Flanagan, his 27th of the season and eighth multi-goal game of the year. The star freshman is tied for first place on the M3 ACHA goals scored leaderboard.
The Bulldogs scored one to close out the second period but freshman goaltender Petr Mehall was perfect in the third period as he refused to let Adrian tie the contest. Mehall earned his 14th win in net this year.
Saginaw Valley State has been selected as the #3 seed entering the first round of MCHC conference playoffs at the Midland Civic Arena on Friday, February 24th. The Cardinals will once again face #6 seed Adrian College at 8:20 p.m. ET. Follow @sagvalleyhockey on Instagram and Twitter for updates.
Tom Cavanaugh
SVSU Hockey Writer & Broadcaster