March 7, 2009

Box Score |  Photo Gallery 

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - The Davenport University Panthers claimed their fourth straight GMHL Tournament tonight as they dominated the Lakers in a 5-1 win on Saturday night. The win lifts DU to an 8-game winning streak as they now prepare for the National Tournament.

Davenport and Grand Valley went back and forth in the first period as neither team was able to come away with a goal bas each goaltender was up to the task. Davenport did dominate the play though as they outshot the Lakers 19-5.

DU then got on the board early in the second when Ricky Gadwa scored on an unassisted goal at the 6:02 mark. Adam Thomas then got a nice outlet from Jeff Slusser and Thomas freezed the goaltender in a one on one to put Davenport up 2-0.

With only twenty minutes to go for their fourth championship in a row, the third period got off to a rough start as the Lakers got a power play goal only 11 seconds in to cut the lead in half.

The Panthers though hung tough and scored the last three goals of the game as Brit Ouellette and Jeff Kraemer also got into the scoring and Thomas added his second of the game.

Chris Joswiak was solid all night in goal for Davenport as he finished the game with 26 saves. For his efforts for the three GMHL Tourney games, Adam Thomas was named the tournament's MVP.

DU will now enter the ACHA DII National Tournament as the overall #1 seed and the pairings will be announced this week. Check back to www.dupanthers.com for more information.