Men's Ice Hockey (DI) | 2/20/2022 9:51:00 AM
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - The men's ACHA DI hockey team ended the regular season with a sweep of games over the weekend against Calvin University. DU is now 19-9 overall and will take part in the GLCHL playoffs this upcoming weekend here in Grand Rapids at Eagles Ice Center. The same venue is where Friday night's game took place in which the Panthers rallied in the third period for a 5-4 victory over the Knights.
The Calvin defense stymied the Panthers offense through the first two periods and led 2-0 after 40 minutes. Davenport responded with five goals in the third period in a flurry of offense. The Panthers scored four goals in a matter of minutes to take a 4-2 lead.
Kristers Klavins got things started at 4:36 from
Justin Turner and
Robert McLaughlin. Just 21 seconds later the game was tied as
Nathan Nickelson scored from
Cole Uzzell. The Panthers took a 3-2 lead at 5:46 as
Jacob Demeter netted the goal with assists from
Jack Sanko and
Logan Davis. Davenport added another one at 7:18 from Klavins again but this time unassisted and Calvin was forced to call their one timeout of the game.
The Knights regrouped at 12:27 as Josh Ernst cut the deficit to 4-3 and Jacob Siebenga had the assist. DU increased the lead back to two goals at 5-3 at the 15:58 mark as
Sebastien Doucet scored from Nickelson and
Stephen Smoody. Calvin would score the game's final goal at 16:52 but the Panthers held them off down the stretch for the narrow victory.
Nathan Gauthier made 29 saves for the Panthers who themselves finished with 32 shots on goal.
On Saturday, the team returned home to Patterson Ice Center for senior night and beat the Knights 4-2 for their 19th win of the season. Davenport opened the scoring at 13:34 of the first period as
Zachary Currie found the back of the net with an assist from Klavins. Calvin tied it up just nine seconds before intermission as Siebenga scored on the power play for the Knights. Calvin took a 2-1 lead at 14:26 of the second period as Kyle VanDusen had the unassisted goal. Davenport would score the next three goals to prevail.
Jacob Boucha had a great individual effort going around defenders to poke the puck past goaltender Liam Austin to tie the game at 2-2 at the 16:47 mark of the second period.
Davenport would score both third period goals to send the fans home happy. Doucet got the game winner at 9:07 from
Austin Thompson and Boucha scored again from Doucet and Thompson at 14:22 to seal the victory. Gauthier made 27 saves in this one.
