The Aquinas College men's hockey team, ranked #19 in the latest ACHA D1 poll, fell to the #5 ranked UM-Dearborn Wolverines tonight at Southside Ice Arena by a final of 4-2. The loss drops the Saints' record to 13-12 on the season and puts them at 5-8 in WHAC play.

The Saints entered the game looking to knock-off a top-5 opponent that had beaten them twice earlier in the season. Aquinas is in the toughest portion of their schedule, taking on Top-10 ranked opponents three straight weekends. The Saints split the first two series in the stretch and looked to take the game at home in front of a packed crowd and the AQ Athletic Band. 

After a feeling out period for each team, the Wolverines struck first with a blast from just inside the faceoff circle that beat goaltender Roman Malkov. Down 1-0 just seven minutes into the game, the Saints would respond after dealing with unfortunate and unusual events. With just under three minutes to play in the period, a Wolverine player went down with an injury that would delay the action for a substantial length of time. The officials made the decision to clean the sheet and take an intermission and then come back to finish the final three minutes and jump right into second period action. 

When the two teams returned to the ice, the Saints countered and took momentum, first by tying the game up with under a minute to go in the first. Nick Stockert took a back hand shot on an odd man rush that was saved, but the rebound went right to Ryan Wolfe who buried it to make it 1-1. Just six minutes later, the Saints took the lead 2-1 after a nifty pass from Kyle Truax found the stick of Mike Curran, who found the back of the net. It was a power-play goal for Curran, his eigth goal of the season.

Unfortunately, the Wolverines would collect themselves and take advantage of miscues by the Saints.  The visitors tied things just over minute later on a power-play of their own to make it 2-2. Then, after the Saints took another penalty two minutes later, the Wolverines made them pay again with another goal on the man-advantage. Holding a 3-2 advantage after 40 minutes of play, the Wolverines scored their third straight goal, this time even-strength, to make it 4-2 and take control of the game. The Saints tried to create scoring chances late, but the Wolverines defense was too much in the end and the visitors took the game by the 4-2 final.

The Saints outshot their guests 40-23 on the night. They were 1-2 on the power-play while allowing two goals in four short-handed situations. Roman Malkov made 19 saves on the night, including a one on one stop of the Wolverines on a penalty shot in the 2nd period to keep the game a one-goal game. The same two teams will be back at it tomorrow, this time on UM-Dearborn's ice at 7:00 pm.