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GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - The D3 hockey team opened their 2010-11 season with a bang on Saturday night as they used four third period goals to down visiting Adrian College 9-6.  Davenport will travel to play Delta College on Sunday after winning their season and home opener.

Davenport and head coach Chris Green entered the 2010-11 season with high anticipation after qualifying for the ACHA national tournament a year ago.  The high hopes started early as DU took a quick lead just 3:11 into the first period on a goal from Chad Ouellette (Windsor, Ontario) which was assisted by Jordan Permoda (Wayland, Mich.).

Adrian however would rebound very quickly and score the next two goals to take a 2-1 lead just over halfway through the opening period.  Davenport maintained the scoring pace with the game-tying goal from Chad Ouellette (Windsor, Ontario) on a 3 vs 1 breakaway and the score would remain deadlocked at 2-2 going to the first intermission.

The second period saw five more goals and it was all the home team early as DU put up three straight goals from the 18:39 mark until the 8:43 remaining.  DU got their scoring from Jordan Steger (Caledonia, Mich.), Norm Farr (Jenison, Mich.) and Sam Waldhart (Walker, Mich.) to take a commanding 5-2 lead.

Unfortunately, the lead would not hold as Adrian closed the period with back to back goals to cut the margin to just a single score at the end of 40 minutes.  The Bulldogs then kept the momentum going into the final period as they scored the first two goals to take a 6-5 lead with only 8:37 remaining.

DU hung tough though and got the equalizer from Waldhart on assists by Zack Feher (Livonia, Mich.) and Ben Duthler (Grand Rapids, Mich.) with 6:40 to play.   The scoring from Davenport continued just over two minutes later as Taylor Keyworth scored what would turn out to be the game winner. 

The Panthers added two more goals from Ben Duthler (Grand Rapids, Mich.) and Norm Farr (Jenison, Mich.) for the final outcome of 9-6.  Goaltender John Cruse (Shelby Twp, Mich.) picked up his first win in net for the Panthers as they will now take their game to the road to face Delta College on Sunday.