HAMMOND, Ind.--The Lawrence Tech men's hockey team, ranked No. 17 in the American Collegiate Hockey Association (ACHA) Division 1 top-25 preseason poll. opened its 2023-24 campaign with a couple of tough defeats on the road to Purdue-Northwest at the Kube Sports Complex. The host Pride took Friday's game 7-1 and then they won 6-3 on Saturday. The Pride are 2-0 to start their season.

In game one, LTU had a slow start to trail 3-0 after the first period. The Pride eventually built a 6-0 advantage in the second period before graduate student Sean Pilet put the Devils on the scoreboard with 1 minute and 24 seconds left. Kaden Hemme and Christopher Kondiles assisted on the play. The Pride outshot the Blue Devils 43 to 39.

In the second contest, Drake Barnish and Liam Bland each had a goal and an assist for the Blue Devils who outshot PNW 32-25.

Trailing 1-0 in the first period, Barnish tied it with 13:54 to go taking a feed from Justin Hubenschmidt who created a turnover at center ice. But the Pride went back up 2-1 41 seconds later.

The Blue Devils tied the score at 2-all in the second period while on the power-play. With 13:35 to go, Bland standing alone on the far post banged home a loose puck after Thimo Ey shot the puck into a scrum in front of the net. Barnish, who was manning the right-point, also had an assist on the play. Ey scored LTU's final goal on a 5-on-3 power-play at 5:24 of the second period when he one-timed a pass through the crease by Bland. Joe Mattevei also was credited with an assist on the play.

Lawrence Tech will be idle until the Oct. 6-7 weekend when it prepares for Cleary for the Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference opening series. Friday's game (7:30 p.m.) will be played at the 140 Ice Den in Howell, Mich., before LTU hosts the Cougars Saturday (8 p.m.) in the home opener at Farmington Hills Ice Arena.