The Aquinas men's hockey team earned a season-opening split to kick off the 2021 campaign over the weekend, with a pair of games against West Michigan rival Grand Valley State. AQ earned a 6-3 victory on the road on Friday night (Oct. 1) before GVSU evened the weekend series with a 5-4 win at Southside Ice Arena on Saturday evening (Oct. 2).
Aquinas is 1-1 after the season's opening weekend, while GVSU is 1-3 on the year.
Mike Curran opened the scoring on the year with a first period goal on Friday night at GVSU. The game was tied 1-1 after the opening period.
Brandon Rozema and
Christian Look netted a pair of goals in the second period, sending the visiting Saints into the third period with a 3-2 edge.
AQ added three goals over the final 20 minutes to pull away, with Curran and Look both tallying their second goals and
Mason Stewart adding his first goal of the year.
Michael Allman stopped 26 of the Lakers' 29 shots to record his first victory as an Aquinas goalkeeper this year and the second of his career.
In Saturday's rematch, the Lakers scored first and led 1-0 after the opening period. AQ responded with three straight goals in the second period. Curran tied the game at 1-1 on a feed from
Russell Shengulette, while
Nick Long gave the Saints a 2-1 lead with his first goal;
Darren Johnson and
Alex Klekotka were credited with the assists. Less than 30 seconds later,
Nick Stockert notched a goal, with Stewart and
Michael Fary earning the helpers.
However, GVSU bounced back with three goals of its own and took a 4-3 lead into the third period. The Lakers scored the opening goal of the final 20 minutes to open a two-goal advantage at 5-3. 11 minutes later, Shengulette pulled the Saints within a goal at 5-4, as Stewart and Fary were again credited with assists on the same play.
AQ had a few good chances to tie the game in the closing minutes, but Grand Valley State kept the Saints from tying the score and captured the win to split the weekend series. Allman recorded 29 saves in the loss; Aquinas was outshot on Saturday, 34-18. There were 23 total penalties in the game, with 13 being whistled on AQ.
The Saints begin a stretch of 12 consecutive WHAC games with a league home-and-home doubleheader against Concordia next weekend (Oct. 8-9). AQ hosts the Cardinals at 7:50 p.m. on Friday (Oct. 8) at Southside before traveling to Ann Arbor to face CUAA on Saturday (Oct. 9) at 7:00 p.m.
