Game Scoring | Dan Broadcast
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - The Davenport Panthers suffered an upset tonight at the hands of the Grand Valley State Lakers by a final score of 3-2 in a shootout. Tyler Forbes and Jonathon Juliano both scored in the losing effort for the Panthers who suffered their first loss on home ice this season.
The cross-town rivals found themselves scoreless after the first 20 minutes of play as the Panthers outshot the Lakers by a 13-7 tally. Neither team created much offensively and Grand Valley State looked to push the Panthers to the perimeter of the ice and the Panthers clamped down on the Lakers looking to gain center ice for the dump-ins.
The Lakers were able to break the scoreless tie as forward Chad Wilhelm poked in a loose puck past goaltender Joe D'Elia (Toronto, Ontario) to give the Lakers the lead a quarter of the way into the second. The Panthers responded well, as both Forbes and Juliano posted second period goals to give the Panthers the lead. Tyler Forbes (Toronto, Ontario) managed to corral the puck in the crease, sending his third-chance effort past the GVSU netminder just over three minutes later. In the 17th minute, Jonathon Juliano (Clinton Twp, Mich.) received a beautiful pass from Sean McWhorter (Lansing, Mich.) and Aaron Warsen (Kentwood, Mich.) at the top of the right circle, firing it to the far left post, beating Grant Lyon over his blocker.
While the Panthers held the shot advantage at 25-19 after two periods, the Lakers refused to quit.
With only a little over four minutes left in the contest, Wilhelm netted his second of the game, finishing a two-on-one past D'Elia to force overtime. After a scoreless overtime that featured both teams on the powerplay, the game entered the tie-breaking event.
In the shootout, Wilhelm netted the only goal as the Laker goalie shut the door on all three Panther shooters - Jeff Slusser (Kentwood, Mich.), Brit Ouellette (Windsor, Ontario) and Juliano.
The Panthers (19-4 overall) will get the holidays off as they return to the ice in December against the Eastern Michigan Eagles followed by the Good Luck Duck series with Oakland University.
