SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – Coming off of Friday’s 10-1 road loss to the Missouri State Bears, the Missouri Tigers dropped their second straight game at Mediacom Ice Park on Saturday.
Missouri State generated four unanswered goals during the game, as Bears’ goaltender Mitch Fernsier limited Mizzou’s opportunities with a 20-save shutout.
“We stayed level headed and kept the tempo up until the end of the game,” said Mizzou captain Thomas Franklin. “We didn’t take as many retaliatory penalties, [which] is a huge thing considering their goals were scored while special teams were on the ice.”
Nine minutes into the game, Missouri nearly opened the scoring on a Christian Hoffmeister wrist shot, but the goal was waved off due to a Tiger’s high stick in the midst of the shot.
“I heard that the [waved-off] goal should have counted,” said Franklin. “That would have given us the only even-strength goal.”
Missouri State took advantage of this break by producing a pair of goals in the opening period, scored by Travis Barrett and Brennan Anderson.
The Tigers matched the Bears’ intensity in the second period with three minors apiece at the midpoint. During the Tigers’ third power play of the period, Missouri State forward Alex Turin registered a short-handed goal on a breakaway.
Alex Kovavich scored the game’s final goal with 4:15 remaining in the game, making him one of three Bears’ forwards with multiple goals in the series.
“Even though we weren’t able to find the back of the net, everyone played really hard tonight,” said Mizzou goaltender Blake Chapman. “We kept them in our zone while we had offensive chances and realized we can hang with them up front.”
Chapman helped the Tigers maintain energy with 35 saves in the contest, over half of which came against him in the first period.
“Everyone played really hard tonight and gave it their all with blocked shots,” said Chapman. “Playing the other big state school in Missouri is a great rivalry and hopefully we can win a game [against Missouri State] in the future.”
Missouri drops to 7-11 on the season after experiencing their first shutout in 2016. The Tigers are scheduled to take on St. Louis University next weekend, as the team returns to Jefferson City on Saturday, Jan. 30 to complete their first home-and-home series of the season.