Men's Ice Hockey (DI) | 9/24/2014 1:13:00 PM

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – The Davenport DI hockey team will get there 2014-15 campaign underway this weekend with a home and home series with GLCHL foe Western Michigan. Head coach, Phil Sweeney and his squad will start their season ranked 13th in the ACHA. The D1 hockey team closed out last season at No. 13 after losing to Stony Brook in the national tournament. Davenport will travel to Kalamazoo, Mich. on Friday for a 7 p.m. puck drop to start the season. The Panthers and Stallions will conclude the weekend at Patterson Ice Center at 5:30 p.m.
 
Game 1
At Western Michigan
Date: Friday, September 26, 2014
Puck Drop: 7 p.m.
Location: Kalamazoo, Mich. (Lawson Ice Arena)
 
Scouting Western Michigan
 
Western Michigan enters the weekend with a 1-0-0-1 record after splitting their opening weekend series with Rochester College. The Stallions won the first game of the series 6-5 in a shootout, before losing 4-3 in a shootout. Jacob Taiariol led the way in the first game of the weekend tallying two goals in the game. In the second game of the weekend, Michael Moroso scored all three of the teams goals in the loss. Brandon Hasse played in net for both games last weekend making 51 saves and has a goals against average of 3.69 to start the year.
 
Last Meeting
 
The last time the Panthers and Stallions met was in mid-January last season and DU was able to complete the season sweep of Western Michigan with a 5-1 win. The Stallions jumped out to the early 1-0 lead, but the Panthers rattled of the final five goals of the game coming from five different goal scorers.
 
GLCHL Outlook
 
Last season, Adrian ran away with the regular season conference title going 21-3-0-0 in the conference for 63 points. Davenport finished in second with 49 points and rival Oakland was right behind with 44 points. Adrian opens the season ranked tenth in the country, while Davenport and Oakland sit at 13th and 14th respectively. Last weekend Oakland swept Kent State and Western Michigan swept Eastern Michigan, as the Grizzlies and Stallions lead the GLCHL in the early going.
 
ACHA National Rankings
 
The preseason ACHA rankings did not see much change from the final rankings from last season. The top six teams remain the same as defending champion; Arizona State is ranked first the country and grabbed all 27 first place votes. Robert Morris (Ill.), Stony Brook, Oklahoma, and Iowa State round out the top five, while 2013 National Champion Minot State is ranked sixth. The GLCHL has four teams ranked in the top-25, as Adrian is the highest ranked team at number ten. The fourth team from the GLCHL behind Davenport and Oakland is Michigan-Dearborn, who grabbed the last spot in the rankings and is the only team in the top-5 who was not ranked at the end of last season.
 
 
DI Ice Hockey Contact: David Gerhart | 616-554-5045 | dgerhart@davenport.edu
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