It was a fantastic start to the season for the men's ACHA Division II hockey team as they defeated Purdue Northwest in a pair of games on Friday and Saturday.
The Friday contest in Hammond, Ind. was all Panthers to the tune of 10-1. The cool nugget of the day was that all the new freshmen on the roster scored a goal for DU. It was the first time for that to happen for the program.
The Panthers scored nine of those goals at even strength and finished 1-for-8 on the power play against the Pride.
Arian Starin got the scoring going at 1:44 from
Luke Nickolaus. The Panthers would notch two more goals in the first period as
Hugo Fonovic and
Nathan Hartline would light the lamp.
Nickolaus got his first goal and third point of the night at 2:39 of the second period for a 4-0 lead. The third period was a bevy of scoring with six goals for the Panthers.
Jack Sanko would score twice in the period and Fonovic would score his second goal of the game.
Jacob Demeter scored the team's seventh goal at 7:55.
Cole Uzzell and
Nik Schepers also scored in the game's final three minutes.
Drake Deering made 20 saves in net for the win.
The Saturday game was marred by penalties on both sides which accounted for 133 minutes. Davenport did win 6-3 in the end to improve to 2-0. Brendan Bogema got his turn between the pipes and made 22 saves including 10 in the second period.
Davenport would finish 3-for-8 on the power play as
Tyler Majewski scored on the man advantage from Nickolaus at 14:30 of the first period to tie the game at 1-1. Demeter scored next also on the power play at 4:03 of the second period for a 2-1 lead. The Pride tied the game at 2-2 but
Adam Hulsey scored at 11:35 from Uzzell to regain a 3-2 lead.
The Pride tied it up again at 3-3 in the third period at the 8:04 mark to set up the strong finish for Davenport.
Brody White scored the game-winner at 9:54 on the power play from
Jean-Philippe Montmarquette and
Spencer Sandberg. Sandberg followed with an insurance goal at 13:24 from White and
Tyler Blackburn. The Panthers sealed it with an empty-net tally with one minute to play as Ryam Gamber scored from Bogema.
