After falling to the fifth-ranked Wolverines of UM-Deaborn last night at Southside, the men's hockey team traveled to the Wolverines' home ice for the second game of the weekend home and home. The Saints will travel back to Grand Rapids with an important upset win, toppling the Wolverines 3-1. The Saints are now 6-8 in WHAC play and 14-12 overall.
The Saints entered the game having never defeated the Wolverines before, and needing to bounce back and post a positive result after the previous nights' loss to keep themselves in the National Tournament conversation. The Wolverines took a 1-0 lead just four minutes into the period and would hold on to the lead heading into the final 20 minutes of play.
However, the third period would belong to the Saints, as they rebounded in a big way to earn a huge WHAC road victory. The Saints tied things up with a power-play goal at 4:17 by
Darren Johnson, assisted by
Mason Stewart. Then midway through the period,
Brandon Rozema found the back of the net for the eventual game-winning goal. The Saints put the nail in the coffin with just under two minutes to play when
Alex Klekotka lit the lamp. The freshman from Grand Rapids was assisted by
Connor Barta and goaltender
Nick Ottenbacher on the play. A three-goal period by the Saints propelled them to the 3-1 victory and another series split in the Saints' three weekend gauntlet against Top-10 teams.Â
The Saints outshot their hosts 68-22 on the night, and Ottenbacher turned aside 21 shots on the day. AQ is back on the ice next weekend against Lawrence Tech in another pair of big WHACÂ games. The Saints and Blue Devils split their first pair of games earlier in the season, and AQ trails the Blue Devils by 2.5 games in the WHAC standings for third place in the conference standings.Â