FOND DU LAC, Wis. - Marian University men's hockey (2-2-0, 2-2-0 NCHA) defeated Lawrence behind a shutout from Mike Baldwin with a 6-0 final.  Baldwin then held the Vikings 1-5 in a shootout to maintain possession of the Battle of Highway 41 traveling trophy.

"Feels great to see how the guys responded tonight," said head coach Erik Largen following the game.  "I know it was a disappointing loss to everyone, and we could've played much better last night.  We were able to gain a lot of confidence from our penalty kill."

Gianni Mangone opened the scoring with his second goal of the year slicing his way through the Viking defense to beat the glove of the Lawrence goalie.  A little over a minute later Derek Perl lit the lamp with a shot from the point on the power play for his first goal of the year.  Hunter Stewart and Warren Carter each earned assists on the play to put MU up 2-0.

The Sabres closed out the period with a 4-on-4 score from Tanner Pagendam, his second of the year, with an assist to Perl.

In a penalty filled second period, neither team could find the back of the net, and it was the Sabre defense that played strong as they were able to kill off a pair of major penalties down two-men late in the period.

"I think it was just our guys buying in to the habits coach [Lincoln] Nguyen is trying to instill," commented Largen on the penalty kill.  "Building those habits of what we are trying to do payed off."

The MU offense started the scoring 2:43 into the third period when Carter cleaned up a scrum in the crease to put the Sabres up 4-0.  Hunter Stewart and Derek Thorogood assisted on the play for the second Marian power play goal.

Pagendam netted his second goal of the game when he beat the blocker of the LU goaltender with assists to Carter and Perl.  The offense continued to push as it only took a little over a minute for Jacob Ryd to light the lamp on a two-on-one breakaway with assists from Derek Thorogood and Scott Smoot, which closed the scoring at 6-0.

"He jumped into a bigger role tonight and really stepped up for us," commented Largen on the two-goal performance of Pagendam.  "He played hard and had a couple penalty kill shifts and really just had an outstanding game."

The Sabres were outshot in the game 31-26, but finished strong outshooting the Vikings 16-9 in the third period.  Baldwin turned away all 31 shots sent his way for his first career shutout.

"He was lights out," commented Largen on the performance of Baldwin.  "He gave a lot of the guys some confidence tonight, especially on the penalty kill.  He was seeing pucks through traffic, and made himself big when we broke down early on.  He kept us alive so we could pop a couple of goals and change the momentum."

Marian hosts Adrian College next weekend Nov. 13-14 with the opener being the Military Appreciation game at 7 p.m.

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