GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – Davenport fell to Oakland 5-4 in the fourth game of the “Good Luck DUck” series. Davenport jumped out to a 3-1 lead after the first period but three unanswered goals by the Grizzlies put the Panthers behind heading into the third period. Davenport tied the game early in the third but an Oakland goal in the middle of the period sealed the win for the Grizzlies. Davenport will be in action again on Thursday night when they travel to Adrian to start a three conference game weekend.
The first period saw both teams struggling to get things going early. Davenport struck first with on Jeff Slusser goal just over eleven minutes into the game. That goal seemed to wake both teams up with the Panthers scoring again four minutes later when Phil Wendecker knocked in a slap shot from the blue line that deflected off a Oakland stick before going in.
Oakland responded quickly with a their first goal less than a minute later. With just under two minutes to play in the first period, Wendecker added his second goal of the period to give the Panthers a 3-1 lead after the first.
The second period was dominated by the Grizzlies. Oakland scored their first goal of the period just over six minutes into the period. Oakland's second goal came shorthanded with ten seconds left on a Davenport five minute power play. Less than thirty seconds later Oakland scored again to take a 4-3 lead.
Early into the third period, Davenport got the equalizer on a Ben Dykstra power play goal. Dykstra received a pass from Matt Nowicki then sent a shot to the top right corner of the net for the goal. With just under ten minutes to play the Grizzlies retook the lead for good.
Phil Graveline took the loss in net for the Panthers. With the loss, the “Good Luck DUck” series is tied at two games apiece. The fifth and deciding game in the series will take place on Feb. 24th at Oakland.
Davenport drops to 14-3 in conference play while Oakland moves to 15-3. Davenport will finish off the regular season with a game against Adrian on Thursday and games against Western Michigan on Friday and Saturday. Oakland will finish the season with two games against Adrian next weekend.
Post-Game Quotes – Head Coach Phil Sweeney
On Bad 2nd period – “We have talked all year about playing 60 minutes of hockey and tonight we were 20 minutes short. We cannot afford to have periods like that.”
On play in 1st and 3rd – “We played solid in the first and the third and really showed who we could be but again, it was not enough to beat a good team like Oakland because you cannot expect to win while not playing 60 full minutes.”
Post-Game Notes
Davenport is now 18-12-1 all-time against Oakland and 9-5-1 all-time at home against the Grizzlies…The tiebreaker game of the “Good Luck DUck” series will take place on Feb. 24th in Oakland.
