The Lions took their final out of state trip of the season, heading to Houston, TX, to play Texas A&M and East Texas Baptist. With the first rankings of the season dropping while the team was in the air, the Lions landed to see they had been slotted into the 12th slot. A few spots ahead of Texas A&M, and 2 spots behind East Texas Baptist.
The Friday night game saw the Lions play a tight game against A&M, with the game tied 1-1 after the first with Manzer netting the LMU goal. The second saw an explosion of goals, with Lions getting down 3-1 before Cigarran, Engstrom and Kurita scored to give the Lions a 4-3 lead after two. In the third the Lions would control play, scoring two more goals (Manzer and Cigarran each net their 2nd of the game) and the Lions hung on for the 6-3 win. John Profaci was in net and made some big saves as the Lions lead grew.
Saturday was a rematch, but a different vibe. As Fridays game was back and forth action, Saturday was more tightly played. A&M would score first, midway through the 2nd, to lead 1-0 after two. The third would still be a tightly played hockey game, but the Lions tied the score 1-1 on a goal off the face off, as the freshman Sebastian Cigarran would score off the draw. This is his 3rd goal of the weekend, and he’s been deadly off the draw. The third would end tied at 1, and a 3 on 3 OT would begin. The Lions had two great chances in OT, but A&M would pick up the puck and score on a rush halfway through the extra period to beat the Lions 2-1 in OT. Henry Lissner made 28 saves in the OT loss.
Sunday the Lions faced East Texas Baptist, ranked 10th and two spots ahead of LMU. The Lions, playing their third game of the weekend had excuses to be a step behind, but came out flying, scoring two in the first, both from Kaczmarek, and led 2-0 after one. The Lions would extend their lead to 3-0 on a goal from the slot by Nishino, but soon after the tide would turn. ETBU would control the back half of the second, scoring three goals in 8 minutes to tie the game at 3-3. But the Lions would answer right back, as Captain Gabi Rodriguez tipped a point shot and it found the net. The Lions led 4-3 after 2. In the third, the Lions played back, dumping the puck in time after time to control the pace of the game. But Kaczmarek would score off a draw with 5 minutes to play to pad the Lions lead to 5-3. With both teams in the box, and the goalie pulled, the Lions would seal the game as Joe Kurita fired it from his own zone into the empty net. John Profaci got his second win of the weekend, coming up with huge saves to stymi the Tigers when they were pushing in the second. The Lions finish the weekend 2-0-1 and head back to Los Angeles looking to finish out the semester strong over the next 3 weekends.