The Davenport ACHA men's Division I team concluded their 2024 with a split of games against Cleary University, a member of the WHAC. The Cougars are a newer program in Division I, and after dropping two games last year to the Panthers, picked up their first win in the series 4-3 on Friday in Howell. The Panthers were able to regroup on Saturday night at home and easily defeat the Cougars 7-2.

Cleary used a strong first period on Friday to build a 3-0 lead after 20 minutes. Both teams registered 11 shots on goal in the period, but Cleary made their attempts count. Steven Miller, Ben Kozar, and James Garbacik all scored even strength goals with Wes Smith assisting on the Kozar and Garbacik tallies.

Noah Bradburn scored DU's first goal at 6:00 of the second period with an assist from Jake Alton. The real tough break came next as Smith scored a short-handed goal for the Cougars at 12:09 from Brett Woolcott. Bradburn scored his second of the game as the Panthers made a late push in the third period. Bradburn's sixth of the season from Luke Mikkola and Alton at 15:27 got the Panthers within 4-2. Kristers Klavins did score one more goal for Davenport with one second left in the game from Heath Drye with an extra attacker.

Davenport had 16 shots on goal in the third period compared to seven for the Cougars. Vincent Parent made tough saves for the CU and totaled 36 saves. Nathan Gauthier shook off a tough first period to record 23 saves.

Davenport returned to Patterson Ice Center on Saturday and left little doubt in a 7-2 victory. Miller once again started the game with a Cleary goal at 8:29 of the first period. Then it was all DU with six straight goals to build an insurmountable lead.

Peter Stojcevski would score twice during the run and now has eight goals this season. Additional goals were scored by Justin Turner, Drye, Brendan Bauer, and Klavins. Bauer scored on the power play at 10:02 of the second period with assists for Taber Gutschick and goaltender Kyler Lowden.

Dylan Tammadge scored his team-leading 21st goal of the season at 3:46 of the third period for Cleary. Ryder McMillen notched his 11th goal of the season at 4:55 of the third period from Stojcevski and Robert McLaughlin to conclude the scoring.

Lowden stopped 26 of 28 shots on the night to earn the win. Nick Meyering got the start in net for the Cougars and made 39 saves.