Tech Hockey gives up goal late in loss to UNO

Courtesy of MTU Athletics

HOUGHTON, Mich. — Nebraska Omaha scored with 1:10 left in the third period to break  1-all deadlock with Michigan Tech in WCHA hockey tonight at the John MacInnes Student Ice Arena. Zahn Raubenheimer skated the puck from his own end and beat Kevin Genoe <http://www.michigantechhuskies.com/sports/mice/2012-13/bios/genoe%20kevin00.html> for the game winner and a 2-1 Mavericks’ victory.

Tech battled through a grind-it-out kind of night with the Mavericks. UNO scored 5:38 into the second period on a highlight-reel type goal from Raubenheimer as he took a bank-shot pass off the boards and chipped the puck from his knees past Genoe.

The Huskies evened the score on a rebound goal by Tanner Kero <http://www.michigantechhuskies.com/sports/mice/2012-13/bios/kero%20tanner00.html> 10 minutes later. The play started with Alex Petan <http://www.michigantechhuskies.com/sports/mice/2012-13/bios/petan%20alex00.html> stealing the puck to maintain possession in the offensive zone. Petan found Blake Pietila <http://www.michigantechhuskies.com/sports/mice/2012-13/bios/pietila%20blake00.html>, who fired an initial shot on John Faulkner. The Omaha goalie couldn’t hang onto the puck, though, and Kero flipped it into the top right corner for his second goal of the season.

The teams skated through the next 23 minutes without any scoring. Tech had four power plays during that time including 45 seconds of 5-on-3 but could not find the back of the net.

After Raubenheimer scored his second of the night, Tech pulled Genoe for the extra attacker. The hosts kept possession in the offensive zone, but couldn’t score the equalizer.

“It’s frustrating,” said head coach Mel Pearson. “I can’t fault our team’s effort tonight. We played really hard. We just needed a bounce or a break and didn’t get it.

“Kevin (Genoe) did a good job. Both their goals weren’t a breakdown in systems, just two great individual plays by their guy.”

Genoe finished with 26 saves on 28 shots. He made several nice saves including a glove save on a point-blank shot in the first period to keep the game scoreless.

Faulkner made 21 saves in earning his third win of 2012-13.

Neither team had a power play goal (UNO 0-2; Tech 0-7).

Michigan Tech (2-5-0, 1-4-0 WCHA) will play Omaha (3-3-1, 1-1-1 WCHA) again tomorrow night to wrap up the two-game league series.