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Site: Grand Rapids, Mich. (Patterson Ice Center)
Score: No. 12 Davenport 6, Western Michigan 3
Records: DU (18-8-0-1), WMU (6-17-0-2)
Next DU event: Saturday, Jan. 18 – vs. Western Michigan – 5:30 p.m.
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – The Davenport D1 hockey team looked to continue the hot start to the 2014 portion of their season, but they got off to a slow start in the game falling behind two goals early. The Panthers came back scoring four goals in the ladder part of the second period taking a 4-3 lead into the first period. DU then was able to score a goal late in the third period and then capped it off with an empty net goal to ice the game and come away with a 6-3 win over Western Michigan. The Panthers will take on Western Michigan again tomorrow as they host the Stallions at Patterson Ice Center at 5:30 p.m.
In the first period DU tried to use the momentum from the past four games to set the tone early, but the Stallions took the early lead scoring two quick goal. However the Panthers started their comeback fast furiously as
Travis White sent a rocket to the back of the net to cut the lead in half.
In the final minutes of the period the Panthers tied the game at two as
Matt Ogden scored on a feed from
Cody Walsh. Just second's later
Andrew Frank shot the puck from the top of the circle and
Dustin Wischmeyer tipped the puck in the net to give DU the lead. In the closing moments of the period
Chris Eckler deflected a puck that was going wide on net and he was able to pick up the rebound and give Davenport a two-goal advantage heading into the break.
The second period saw a lot of penalties and not much full strength action until about the halfway through the period. DU had to kill off a five minute major, and gave up a goal on the major penalty as the lead was cut to 4-3. The Panthers had a five-minute power play of their own, but could not score and DU took a 4-3 lead into the locker room.
Davenport came out in the third period looking to separate themselves and increase their lead, and in the early portion of the period DU was able to control the puck in the Western Michigan end, but could not put one on the board.
With 6:21 left in the game
Luke McCarthy scored on a breakaway to give the Panthers a 5-3 lead in the closing moments of the game. In the final seconds of the game the Panthers added an empty net goal to ice the 6-3 win over Western Michigan.
After the game head coach
Phil Sweeney talked about how the team turned it around in the second half of the first period, "I was happy we did not panic. We went down two right away. Its tough enough to come back, if you start to panic you make it a lot harder on yourself. That's a great thing to see, the guys never got down on each other, they kept fighting and encouraging each other to keep playing hard, the bench was loud saying we are going to come back. That is what you really want as a coach, guys rallying around each other and battling back."
Travis White who scored the first goal of the game talked about his first game back and getting the first goal of the game, "It feels really good the boys were flying tonight, we need to get on a little bit of a roll here in the second semester. We had a lot of injuries and such, but it felt good after that goal went in and the we got it going after the first two went in."
The Panthers will faceoff against Western Michigan again on Saturday at Patterson Ice Center with a 5:30 puck drop as DU looks to go for season sweep of the Stallions.
Post-Game Notes
Matt Kaudis got the start in net and recorded 19 saves to move DU to 18-8-0-1 on the season.
Andrew Frank tallied another assist to up his point streak to 12 games and is now tied for the team lead in assists with 21.
Dustin Wischmeyer tallied two goals in the game, as he was the player to score more than one goal, as there were five different goal scorers in the game.
DI Ice Hockey Contact:
David Gerhart | 616-554-5045 |
dgerhart@davenport.edu
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