BENSENVILLE, Ill. - The Panthers picked their third straight win and was back on the ice for the first time in over a month on Friday night. Davenport squared off with first time opponent Roosevelt (formerly Robert Morris, Ill.) at Edge Ice Arena and prevailed 5-3 against the Lakers. Funny enough the last three wins have come against the nickname Lakers with the two previous wins coming against Grand Valley State.
The Lakers of Roosevelt played a steady first period and led 1-0 after 20 minutes. Josef Martancik scored at 11:46 of the first period for Roosevelt despite a 14-8 edge in shots on goal by DU. Davenport knocked the rust off in the second period and scored twice to lead 2-1 after 40 minutes.
Logan Davis got into the scoring action at 9:16 of the second period from
Nathan Nickelson to tie it up. Then in the latter stages of the period,
Robert McLaughlin scored with 18 seconds left in the period from Adam Hulsey and
Kristers Klavins. Davenport took 19 shots on goal in the period and stopped all 12 shots by the Lakers.
The third period ramped up with five total goals in the final 20 minutes. Davenport took a 3-1 lead at the 9:03 mark as Hulsey scored on the power play with an assist from
Jacob Boucha. Roosevelt got within a goal at 14:57 as Turner Cepuritis tallied the goal. Davenport increased their lead to 4-2 at 16:15 as
Austin Thompson took the feed from
Aidan Talsma and deposited it into the back of the net. Not to be deterred, Roosevelt got a power play chance and converted to make it 4-3 at the 18:24 mark as Frank Moore got credit for the goal from Martancik. The Panthers put it away though at 19:19 with an empty-net goal by Thompson with an assist from Nickelson.
Davenport finished with 43 shots on net compared to 30 for Roosevelt.
Nathan Gauthier 27 of those 30 shots to get win in net for the Panthers. The two teams will play again on Saturday with another 8:15 PM ET puck drop at Edge Ice Arena.
