Howell, Michigan — Losing Friday on Senior Night left a sour taste, so the Aquinas men's hockey team regrouped Saturday night (Feb. 18) with a 5-2 road victory over Cleary.

The Saints (15-19, 10-14 WHAC) matched the same scoreline they beat the Cougars (11-20, 8-16 WHAC) on Wednesday (Feb. 15) in what was a postponed makeup game from earlier in the season.

On Saturday, Cleary jumped out to an early lead a little over three minutes to the contest. Aquinas responded with a pair of goals by Darren Johnson and Alex Johnson to hold a 2-1 lead at the first intermission. 

Halfway through the second period, Dylan Rumpke scored on the power play to give the Saints a two-goal advantage. That lasted for roughly five minutes before Ben Gledhow, who assisted on Wiener's first goal with Jonny Gardiner, got the Cougars back within one at 3-2.

Rumpke ends the regular season as the Saints' leader in points (47), scoring 23 goals and picking up 24 assists. Three of the goals were game-winning goals.

A tense third period finally shifted AQ's way when Alex Johnson scored his second of the night with just over six minutes remaining. Brandon Rozema picked up a second assist after also providing the helper on Johnson's first goal. 

Kirwin Johnson, Christian Look and Mitchell Hoon all picked up assists throughout the game as well. 

Arthur Prukhitsky pushed the final score to 5-2 with an empty-net goal. The senior defenseman's first career goal for Aquinas came unassisted with 1:12 remaining.

Aquinas outshot Cleary 41-22. AQ goaltender Max Johnston made 20 saves.

The Saints now prepare for the upcoming WHAC Tournament. AQ will be the No. 5 seed and square off against No. 4 Concordia on Friday (Feb. 24) in the quarterfinals. The conference tournament is being hosted by Indiana Tech at the SportONE Parkview Icehouse. Game times have yet to be announced.