The Grand Valley State University men’s club hockey team gave one of their strongest performances in at least a month on Saturday afternoon to outshoot Adrian College 35-24.

However, the show of strength was not enough for the Lakers, as the men’s team dropped a 6-3 decision in the last cruicial moments of the game.

Adrian capitalized in the last five minutes by crashing the net repeatedly, resulting in the scoring of three unanswered goals that gave Adrian a late-game lead and put the game out of reach for GVSU.

“It was a very tight game,” said senior captain Craig Marrett. “They scored early but then it was back and forth until the last five minutes of the game. The effort was there but we couldn’t pull off the win.”

Junior Chad Wilhelm scored his 17th and 18th goals of the season in the first period off the rush, giving the Lakers a 2-2 tie going into the second period.

“We had a pretty balanced attack tonight,” said head coach Mike Forbes. “We created opportunities on all four lines which was nice to see. We were a little passive on our fore-check lately and I think we were a lot more aggressive on the puck.”

Adrian took a 3-2 lead in the second period as the game became faster paced with tighter and tighter defensive play on both sides.

“Our play was much more competitive,” Forbes said. “We gave up six goals on 24 shots, so that makes it pretty tough, but we played well. It’s a positive step. We were able to elevate our game and compete the way we did. The score wasn’t indicative of the game at all. It could have been a 3-2, 3-3 game in our favor. We gave up three goals in the third we would like to have back.”

Despite the late offensive flurry by Adrian, freshman Tyler Stoller scored his 13th goal of the season on a late power play with under a minute to go in the game. Stoller also added an assist on one of the Wilhelm goals.

“It’s as good as we’ve played since our Colorado trip,” Forbes elaborated. “Our tempo, physicality, scoring opportunities, and pressuring the puck all over the ice, I thought we looked good. We outshot them, but unfortunately they put the puck in the net.”

Sophomore goaltender Doug Chidester fell to 6-3 for the season with the loss. Chidester will look to get his seventh victory of the season Sunday against Western Michigan University at Georgetown Ice Arena.

“We played a really solid game all around,” Forbes said. “We had a little difficulty in net tonight, but that’s part of the process, I thought the defense played well, we just struggled to stop the puck.”

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