After just two years in Division One competition, the Purdue Northwest men’s hockey team has reached the mountaintop in its conference.
The Pride won its first Great Lakes Collegiate Hockey Lockey Championship on Feb. 17, while earning a birth in the American Collegiate Hockey Association Division 1 National Tournament which begins near St. Louis tomorrow.
The team’s tournament run started with a familiar foe in Roosevelt University, a team PNW saw four times during the regular season. Although the Pride had outscored Roosevelt 24-1 in those first four meetings, every team starts winless in the playoffs.
“The Roosevelt game at home was a game where you kind of had to find a way to win in advance,” said head coach Carl Trosien. “Beating [a team] five times in a year is really tough. You have to find a way to lock in and we were able to do that.”
PNW took care of business for the fifth and final time this season against Roosevelt with a 3-0 victory.
Next up was a date with 13th-ranked Calvin University, a program that PNW split four meetings with during the regular season. The Pride matched up with Calvin in the final game of the regular season just three days after Roosevelt.
“It was the same thing with Calvin where you’re in a world where we played them the weekend prior,” Trosien said. “You know you’re going to get their best effort to come to the playoffs.”
Trosien’s group got off to a hot start, netting two goals in the first period and continued that trend in the second frame, coasting to a 4-0 win and earning their first appearance in the GLCHL Championship game.
The final hurdle was the team that eliminated PNW in the conference playoffs a season ago and has won five of the last six GLCHL Championships – 3rd-ranked Adrian College.
Adrian has been PNW’s kryptonite. During the regular season’s two meetings, the national powerhouse outscored the Pride 10-0.
Just before the team got on the bus for its final game, Trosien let his players know that what they were doing is truly special.
“I told them at the hotel before we headed to the rink, ‘It’s really easy to sit here and look at the roster and see what we’ve done in two years, but the truth of the matter is it doesn’t always work out that way’,” Trosien said. “In 16 years I have coached some very good teams that have not gotten to this point. There are no guarantees we’re going to be back in this game next year.”
Adrian scored first, but the Pride bounced back to tie the score at 2-a piece at the end of the second period. After realizing they were one period away from a championship, the Pride turned it on – outscoring Adrian 3-1 in the final frame, resulting in a 5-3 victory.
“We did everything we needed to do to beat them that day,” Trosien said. “We just looked like we were a little hungrier. Every time we think we found the best in this group, they find a way to raise the stakes.”
The real hero of the game sophomore goalie, Cooper Olson. The Pride were outshot by Adrian by a whopping margin of 65-18. Olson became a one-man defensive wall.
“I saw the shots after the game and the first thing you do is question how accurate it is,” he said. “I have learned that Coop [Olson] is just different. He’s just wired different. He’s a special kid and I mean that. He’s one of the best goalies in the country at this level, no questions asked.”
Olson would take home the tournament MVP for his two shutouts and his heroic 62-save performance in the finals.
The Pride begins its new journey for a national title tomorrow, when it plays 22nd-ranked Indiana Pennsylvania.
The tournament is five rounds consisting of 24 of the top hockey teams from around the country. Over the course of seven days, 23 games will be played at the Centene Community Ice Center, an $83 million dollar arena that was built in 2019 in Maryland Heights, Missouri, near St. Louis. All of the coverage will be broadcast on the FloHockey streaming service.
PNW’s opening matchup is not one that Trosien takes for granted.
“[Indiana Pennsylvania is a] scrappy group,” he said. “They are going to show up. Nobody wants to go to St. Louis to play one game so I’m sure we’re getting their best effort. We have to show up and take care of business or it’s going to be a short adventure.”
