April 8, 2016
K-State Inline Hockey Club continues in national tournament today
The K-State Inline Hockey Club team, the Rollercats, are in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to take part in the National Collegiate Roller Hockey Association's NIT for the fifth year in a row. All games are being streamed live online.
The Rollercats play Western Michigan at 9 a.m. April 8. That game will conclude the round-robin portion of the tournament. Depending on the Rollercats' final pool standings, single-elimination tournament play will begin April 8 or April 9. We are five or six games away from the title. The champions will be crowned after a noon game April 10.
The team arrived April 5. The round-robin portion of the tournament was delayed a couple of hours due to problems with the rink surface April 6. Game play resumed for the Rollercats at 12:15 p.m against Louisiana Tech. The team gave its best effort, but lost 6-4.
The Rollercats played next at 7 a.m. April 7 against Florida State. Florida State jumped out to an early 1-0 lead in a penalty filled first period. The second period saw only one penalty, a tripping call on Florida State. The Rollercats managed to capitalize on that opportunity to tie the game at one. The Rollercats opened the third period with an early goal. Unfortunately, Florida State answered fairly quickly to tie the game at two. Regulation ended still knotted up at two all. A four-minute overtime with three skaters aside also ended with no more scoring for either team. This brought us to a shootout, where one skater at a time attempts to score on the goalie. Rollercats elected to let Florida State shoot first. Rollercats' goalie, JR Cook stood tall and denied them. Our first skater, team captain Jake Schulte, decked and finessed his shot past their goalie. Cook blocked their second shooter, and Evan Mills, fired a rocket that beat their goalie to give the Rollercats the victory.
The Rollercats currently sit tied for second place in our pool, 1-1, which includes Florida State, 0-2, Louisiana Tech, 1-1, and Western Michigan, 2-0.