Men's Ice Hockey (DII) | 1/30/2022 8:33:00 AM
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - It was a very entertaining and hard fought weekend of hockey for the ACHA Division II team. The Panthers welcomed a strong Sault College team to Patterson Ice Center having lost 10 in a row but they put together two solid games to hopefully set the tone for a push in the month of February. Davenport won 5-4 on Friday night and tied 1-1 on Saturday night against the Cougars from Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario.
Drake Deering was a magician all weekend in goal for the Panthers. He faced 62 shots on Friday and made an incredible 58 saves in the win. He then turned around the next night and stopped 41-of-42 pucks that came his way in the tie. It was the first such tie of the season for the Panthers who are now 7-13-1 overall.
Sault College had four different goal scorers on Friday and saw two different goaltenders split action. Zachary Tarantini made 21 saves and Zachary Prusky made 23 saves.
Jeff Rahilly had a monster night with a hat trick for DU. He scored once in each period accounting for the team's first, fourth, and fifth goals. DU built a 5-2 lead early in the third period before the Cougars fought back with goals at 2:54 and 19:52.
Hugo Fonovic and
Luke Nickolaus also scored for the Panthers.
Saturday's tilt was a defensive slugfest ending in a 1-1 tie after a five-minute overtime period.
Nathan Hartline gave DU a 1-0 lead at 6:04 of the first period from
Matthew Lyszyk and
Nik Schepers. Sault College answered at 8:05 of the second period as Parker Morgan got the tally from Noah Boman and Keaston Blais. The total shots were 42-31 in favor of the Cougars and each team served eight penalty minutes.
The team currently has five regular-season games left on their schedule. This upcoming weekend will be a measuring stick as they travel to the Lindenwood Showcase for three games in three days against Cincinnati, Sault College again, and Lindenwood in Maryland Heights, Mo. at the Centene Community Ice Center.
