Fraser, Mich. — The Aquinas men's hockey team picked up a 5-2 win against Rochester at home Friday night (Oct. 6) and then claimed the away rematch by the same score, 5-2, on Saturday night (Oct. 7) inside the Big Boy Arena in Fraser, Mich.

The copy and paste type of performance got the Saints back to the .500 mark with a 4-4 overall record and gave them two early wins to open conference play. Rochester dropped to 0-4 (0-2 WHAC) and has lost 29 straight games dating back to last season.

Aquinas is now 18-0 all-time against the Warriors since the two teams started playing each other back in 2017.

Rochester, despite losing by three goals, certainly didn't make it easy on AQ. The Warriors scored the only goal in the opening frame shorthanded when Bobby Kukla put a puck past AQ goaltender Max Johnston.

That gave the Saints something to fester over, going back into the locker room down 1-0 through the first 20 minutes. Aquinas responded with three unanswered goals in the second period.

Xavier Erickson netted the equalizer just 1:48 into the period, assisted by Matt Denhartigh and Brendan McCatty. That was followed by captain Brandon Rozema scoring twice, 82 seconds apart, to give AQ a comfortable 3-1 lead.

According to unofficial data collected by eliteprospects.com, Rozema tied the program's all-time regular season points record with 153 — joining former Saints' Doug Zelenka and Corey Giffel — after picking up two points on Saturday. Rozema sits seconds on the all-time goal scoring list with 68, and trails Zelenka by 10 goals.

Picking up assists on Rozema's two goals were Ryan Kleber, Nicola Vogel, Mitchell Hoon and Alex Johnson.

Logan Wesolek and Hoon increased AQ's lead to 5-1 with two more goals in the middle of the third period. Erickson got the assist on Wesolek's tally and Johnson had the helper on Hoon's power play conversion.

After assisting Kukla's goal in the first period, Rochester's Tirned Kabambamwamba capped the scoring with 2:11 remaining in regulation.

The Saints outshot the Warriors, 61-34. Johnston made 32 saves to earn his second win of the season.

Aquinas continues conference play next week against UM-Dearborn. The Saints will travel first with a road game Friday night (Oct. 13) at the UMD Campus Arena before returning to the Southside Ice Arena for the home rematch on Saturday (Oct. 14). Puck drop at 7 p.m. on Friday and 7:30 p.m. on Saturday.