Jan. 28, 2008

Grand Rapids, Mich. - For the third consecutive year, the Davenport University Panthers hockey team has earned the outright GMHL crown. With a weekend sweep of the University of Michigan, the Panthers finish the GMHL regular season at 10-1-3 for a total of 23 points. The Panthers went into the weekend tied with Miami (OH) with 19 points, but thanks to Grand Valley State's sweep of the Red Hawks, the Panthers claimed the outright title. DU made sure they earned the title without needing any help as they dominated UM 11-2 in Saturday's victory.

On Friday night the Davenport University Hockey team traveled to Dearborn Michigan to take on ACHA DII and GMHL rival University of Michigan. Davenport's Dearborn campus had a tailgate party just prior to the game and traveled to the rink located on U of M Dearborn's campus to watch the action.

The Panthers came out very slow in the game contrary to the Wolverines. Michigan came out with a lot of intensity. The game went back and forth throughout the game and Adam Thomas scored the eventual game winner, a shorthanded goal with under two minutes to go. Michigan scored a power play goal with 30 seconds remaining to close within one and hit the post seconds later. "We were very fortunate to come away with the much needed two points tonight, stated Head Coach Paul Lowden. I give credit to Michigan for their efforts as they deserved at least a point." Davenport's power play has been very effective the last couple of weeks as they have used timely goals to make the difference in the close games.

Davenport scoring came from Dayne Gluting, Kevin Doyle, Alex Mikla, Eric Troup, Rick Gadwa and Adam Thomas.

On Saturday afternoon, Michigan traveled to Grand Rapids for the second game of the two game series. The Panthers needed the win to claim their third straight GMHL title and the Panthers effort was much better scoring nine unanswered goals over the first two periods. Minor changes in the line-up this weekend contributed to all four lines clicking offensively.

Goal scorers for DU were: Bobby Collar (2), Adam Thomas (2), Brit Ouelette (2), Jonah Rogowski, Justin Poorman, Adam Tomacari, Jeff Kraemer and Kevin Doyle.

Next week the Panthers face-off against their number one rival Oakland University for their second home and home series of the season. The opening game will be hosted by Oakland University Friday February 1st at the Onyx in Rochester, MI at 8:40 PM before heading back to Grand Rapids the next day at Patterson Ice Center at 3:00 PM.