Orr’s crew unable to best Miami (Ohio)

Things looked promising for the IU club hockey team going into last weekend.

The team had momentum on its side after coming back from a disappointing loss against Grand Valley State to beat them the next day.

But the momentum seems to have stopped.

The Hoosiers lost a close game Friday at Frank Southern Ice Arena in Bloomington. Both teams had speed, which allowed for a lot of offense as Miami held off IU 5-4. Both teams received quite a few penalties in the first half of the game, causing much of the second period to be played 4-on-4.

“I think it was a pretty good battle,” senior Daniel Keeney said. “We always have tough games with Miami. They’re big rivals.”

Keeney went on to say his team didn’t have quite enough luck.

“It went back and forth, and I think they just got one more bounce than us,” he said. “We played well in parts of the game. We just had a few mistakes that they capitalized on.”

Junior Adam Logue remained positive after the defeat.

“As tough as it is for a loss, there were really a lot of positives that came out of tonight,” he said. “Being down two goals late against one of the best teams in the league, we were able to come back and tie it. It was positive even though we lost.”

While Logue received no penalties in the game, he watched many of his teammates take trips to the box.

“There was a couple of tough calls, but you can’t ever blame a game on a ref,” he said. “That’s just an unwritten rule of hockey.”

Keeney didn’t place blame, but he didn’t agree with some of the calls.

“I did feel we came out on the short end of the stick in the second period,” he said. “In this game, you can’t really just stand there and let somebody hit you, you got to get your arms up and protect yourself.”

Like Logue, IU coach Tom Orr also had a positive outlook despite the loss.

“You could get real disappointed with the outcome, or you could look at it that we played great hockey against a great team,” Orr said. “They’re one of the best teams in the country, and we skated right with them.”

There was so much offense in the game, he thought his team was about to respond to Miami’s game-winning goal just as time expired.

“It was the kind of game where any mistake or any break can really be that one goal difference,” he said. “It just happened that when the buzzer went off, we were down by one. If we would have played a few more minutes, I think we would have scored.”

Sophomore Justin Lincoln was goaltender for the loss. Sal Calace tended the net for Saturday’s game. While Orr said it was hard to be disappointed with the effort his team gave on Friday, the team struggled Saturday, suffering a 10-2 loss.

“I think we played even for four periods this weekend,” he said, “but we had two that didn’t go so well.”