Jan. 19, 2008

Grand Rapids, Mich. - In what has become one of the hardest hitting and most physical rivalries in ACHA Hockey, the Davenport/Liberty series took a turn in favor of the Panthers Friday night as DU used two 2nd period goals to down the visiting Flames 3-2. The win against the ACHA Div. I #5 ranked Flames comes on the heels of two great victories over GMHL rivals Ferris State and Grand Valley State.

The Panthers got out of the gate quickly scoring less than 3:00 into the first period when Rick Gadwa put away a shot from in front of the net to give the home team an early 1-0 lead. The defense and strong hitting would take over from there in the first period as Davenport found itself on the top side of many great hits. Unfortunately for the Panthers, some of their hits also resulted in penalty minutes, but the penalty killing lines stepped up huge as they did not allow a Flames goal in the opening period.

Davenport came out strong again in the beginning of the second period and increased the lead to 2-0 when Adam Thomas found the back of the net against the Flames goalie. Liberty showed some toughness after the Panthers goal and got on the board with some strong shooting and followed up a miss with a put-back goal to bring the deficit back to just one. Gadwa would strike again for the Panthers towards the end of the 2nd period on a rebound off pads of the Flames goalie to bring the score to 3-1 in favor of the Panthers.

Liberty would go on to add one more goal in the 3rd period but ran out of time as DU posted one of their most impressive victories of the season. Eddie Wheeler was solid all night in the net for the host Panthers as he made it very difficult all night for the Liberty players. The two teams will meet again tomorrow afternoon at 3:00 PM inside Patterson Ice Center and the game can be heard on www.michigansportsradio.com.