The men's hockey team's late-season hot-streak came to an end this afternoon in the WHAC Tournament Championship game, as they fell to tournament champs, UM-Dearborn 4-2. The loss ends the Saints' 11 game winning streak, which included an upset win over #2 seed and Top-10 ranked Indiana Tech in the WHAC Semi-finals. The Saints are now 24-13 on the season and will wait to hear if they have done enough to be selected as an at-large bid to the ACHA D1 National Tournament.

The Saints jumped out to an early 1-0 lead with a goal less than three minutes into the contest credited to Greg McQuade. Unfortunately for the Saints, the lead would only last about three minutes, as the Wolverines tied the game at 1-1 at the 6:40 mark in the first. The top-seeded Wolverines took the lead midway through the period with a powerplay goal to make it 2-1. 

The Wolverines increased their lead to 3-1 early in the second-period, but the Saints countered and cut the deficit back to just one three minutes later. Alex Klekotka scored on the powerplay, with assists to Nick Long and Brandon Schwandt to make it 3-2 UM-Dearborn. The Saints battled throughout the remainder of the period to find the equalizer, but found themselves trailing still with 20 minutes to go.

The Saints pressured the Wolverines throughout the final period, looking to find the tying goal to go to overtime or put themselves in position to win in regulation, Unfortunately for AQ, the Saints were whistled for a penalty late, with under two minutes remaining, and the Wolverines scored on the resulting power-play to put the game out of reach. The Saints had outshot UM-Dearborn 39-26 on the day, and goaltender Nick Ottenbacher made 22 saves on the day, but it was not enough to knock off the top seed on this day.

Aquinas, which was ranked #19 in the most recent ACHA D1 Computer Poll, will wait to see how the numbers shake out this weekend after two more wins and a trip to the conference finals. The top 20 teams in ACHA D1, including automatic conference champion bids, qualify for the National Tournament. The final rankings will be released later this week.