GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - It was one final time to take the ice in the 2025 calendar year for the Davenport men's ACHA Division 1 hockey team against No. 22 Cleary in a weekend series. The Cougars were able to pull out a pair of victories in tightly-contested fashion. Cleary won 2-1 at Patterson Ice Center on Friday, Dec. 12 and then won in a shootout back in Howell at the 140 Ice Den on Saturday, Dec. 13. That game ended in a 3-3 tie and the Cougars got a 1-0 edge in the shootout.
The final score of 2-1 has not gone the Panthers' way this season as they are 0-4 on that exact score this season. Cleary and Davenport exchanged a good amount of shots on goal as both goaltenders were up to the task. Davenport recorded 55 shots on goal and Nicholas Meyering made a season-high 54 saves for the Cougars.
Kyler Lowden was able to stop 34 shots for the Panthers.
Zane Rydel scored the only goal of the first period at 6:12 from Brett Woolcott and Steven Miller. The second period was filled with penalties, including six against Davenport.
Branwen Pollett was served a 10-minute unsportsmanlike at 19:28 of the period and
Noah Bradburn took a hooking call just 20 seconds later. The penalty kill was outstanding for the Panthers as Cleary could not score and went 0-for-6 on the power play. Blair Krawchyk scored his 13th goal of the season at 12:28 of the third period for a 2-0 lead.
Bryan Fenlon cut the deficit in half on the power play at 13:52 from
Jake Alton, but the Cougars clamped down on defense to finish the game.
The scoring was more prevalent in the rematch on Saturday. Davenport registered 46 shots on goal compared to 43 for Cleary. Once again though, the Panthers found themselves down 2-0. James Garbacik would score twice in the first period for Cleary. Matthew Carlson and
Liam Bland scored back-to-back goals in the second period to tie the game. Each of them scored his sixth goal of the season.
There were fewer penalties in this one as each team had one minor in each of the three periods.
Noah Bradburn took a goaltender interference penalty in overtime, but it was killed off to force the shootout. Before that though, Cleary took a 3-2 lead on Braeden Bzovey's fourth goal of the season at 19:44 of the second period. The Panthers got the lone goal of the third period as
Peter Stojcevski tallied a power play goal at 9:00 from
Jack Kelly and
Dylan Jouppi. The shootout would go into the fourth skater and Dylan Tammadge beat
Reid Ramsay for the winner. Ramsay entered the game in the second period in place of Lowden who stopped 14-of-16 shots. Ramsay ended with 25 saves and his counterpart Vincent Parent stopped 43-of-46 for the Cougars.
The Panthers will now have an extended break for the holidays and come back next semester on Friday, Jan. 9 at John Carroll for an 8:10 PM puck drop in Gates Mills, Ohio.
