March 17, 2010

Box Score  Photo Gallery

SIMSBURY, Conn. - Davenport opened its defense of their 3rd straight ACHA D2 crown with a convincing 8-2 win over Bowling Green on Wednesday afternoon in the International Skating Center in Simsbury, CT. DU will take on Eastern Washington (a 4-0 loser to Boston College) on Thursday at 3:45 PM.

Davenport, which has won the previous two ACHA D2 National Championships in Fort Myers, FL and Grand Rapids, MI opened defense of a third straight crown on Wednesday with seven goals in the first two periods to down the Falcons of BGSU.

Phillip Tesoriero (Boulder, Colo.) opened the scoring at the 15:11 mark of the first when he scored an even strength goal on assists from Jonathon Frank (Wallingford, Conn.) and Marc Thompson (Traverse City, Mich.).

DU added two more goals in the first 20 minutes as they increased the lead to 3-0 on power play scores from Bobby Collar (Brighton, Mich.) and Jeff Slusser (Kentwood, Mich.). The Panthers outshot the Falcons 16-2 in the first period.

After BGSU got on the board with their first goal of the game less than five minutes into the second, DU responded quickly with a Ben Dykstra (Kentwood, Mich.) goal just 1:17 later. Brit Ouellette (Windsor, Ontario) then held the hot hand as the 3rd year player scored two goals in a matter of 35 seconds to increase the lead to 6-1.

Bobby Collar ended the period with his second of the game on assists from Matt Morang (Dearborn, Mich.) and Jeremy Barber (Caledonia, Mich.). Midway through the second, DU was able to pull starting net-minder Scott Knight (Grand Rapids, Mich.) to allow Cam Thomas (Kentwood, Mich.) some valuable playing experience at the National level.

The third period was very sloppy and low-energy for the Panthers and Head Coach Paul Lowden was not pleased with the way they came out to close the game. "Our players needs to finish these games off and continue to bring momentum and energy for 60 minutes, said Lowden. This tournament has many good teams that will take advantage of every edge that we give them."

Bowling Green and Davenport each scored a goal in the final period as Tesoriero added his second of the game with just less than nine minutes to play.

Other than Tesoriero scoring two goals, Brit Ouellete finished with two goals and on assist. Bobby Collar also scored two goals and Adam Thomas (Kentwood, Mich.) recorded two points on two assists.

Davenport's Scott Knight did not face many shots in his 32 minutes of action as the 5th year player ended up allowing one goal on five shots. Cam Thomas also allowed one goal on 8 shots.

DU will now take on Eastern Washington on Thursday at 3:45 PM.