Box Score Highlight Video | Facebook Photo Gallery

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – A banged-up Davenport team playing without four of their top five point scorers played one of their best games of the season Tuesday night as the seventh-ranked Panthers upset No. 2  Adrian 3-1. Freshman goalie Matt Kaludis came up with some huge saves as he held the high scoring Bulldog team to just one goal. The Panthers will next travel to No. 9 Lindenwood for a pair of games this weekend.
 
With several key players not on the ice, Davenport came out and was able to put pressure on Adrian. After killing an early penalty, the Panthers got a few good chances and were able to get one past the Adrian goalie with 10:11 remaining in the first period. Dustin Wischmeyer scored the goal for the Panthers knocking in a back-handed centering pass from Dan Zawacki to put Davenport up 1-0. Josh Munford also picked up an assist on the score.
 
Davenport was able to keep the puck in the Adrian zone for the first several minutes of the second period. With 13:32 remaining in the period, Zawacki netted in the second Davenport goal to push the Panthers lead to 2-0. A few minutes later, Adrian scored to cut the Davenport lead in half. Late in the period, Alex Ostrowski scored a power play goal to once again increase the Davenport lead to two. The power play goal came 10 seconds into the Davenport man-advantage.
 
The third period belonged to the Davenport defense and goalie Matt Kaludis. The Panthers did a great job of blocking shots and clearing pucks from in front of the net limiting the Bulldog's second chance opportunities. After allowing Adrian only one power play in the first two periods, Davenport was able to kill all three of the Bulldog's power plays in the third period.
 
Kaludis finished with 33 saves on 34 Adrian shots allowing the bulldogs to score just the one goal. The win improve Kaludis to 6-0 on the season. The Panthers improve to 17-6-0-1 on the season and 12-2-0-1 in GLCHL play. Davenport will now make the trip to St. Charles, Mo. to take on No. 9 Lindenwood this Friday and Saturday night.
 
Post-Game Quotes – Head Coach Phil Sweeney and Assistant Coach Joe Messina
 
Sweeney on team stepping up with several key players not suiting up – “Well I've always said that everyone's here for a reason and all these guys are key players. Everybody is a good player or else they wouldn't be here. That's what we do, we bring in really good hockey players that can come in and play against anybody in the country and I have as much confidence in them as I do in the guys sitting in the stands.”
                                   
Sweeney on what this will do for teams confidence with tough stretch before winter break – “I will do a lot. We have had a very successful first semester and we just have to finish it off strong. Tonight's win put us in line to possibly win the GLCHL which is very important. And now with Lindenwood and Grand Valley it's about finishing this semester strong and hopefully we can get some our healthy and back on the ice.”
 
Messina on the play of Matt Kaludis in net – “Matt's come a long way in just a short time with the program. We brought him here for a reason obviously, to play in games like this and make some big saves when the team needed him to. Over the last couple of months we've been working on some things in his game, trying to clean up a few things and they were definitely shown today, making some big saves at crucial times throughout the game. Whether we were on the penalty kill, or even 5-on-5, or in the last few minutes of the game when they had a whole slew of shots, they threw everything and the kitchen sink at him and he stood strong between the pipes for us tonight.”
 
Post-Game Notes
 
Davenport is now credited with handing Adrian two of their three losses on the season…The Davenport win snaps Adrian's 10-game winning streak…Davenport was out shot by Adrian 26-34.
 
 
Follow Davenport Athletics on: FACEBOOK | TWITTER | You Tube
 
Follow Davenport DI Ice Hockey on: FACEBOOK