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 Sophomore Nate Higgins scored WSU's lone goal against Niagara. |
Feb. 13, 2005
Plymouth, Mich. - The Wayne State University men's hockey team (11-15-3 overall, 5-8-3 College Hockey America) dropped to fourth place in the CHA following a 3-1 setback to visiting Niagara University (11-16-2, 6-8-2 CHA) Sunday afternoon at the Compuware Sports Arena in Plymouth.
The Purple Eagles have 14 points to WSU's 13 and NU won the season series 2-1-1.
Today's game was scoreless after 20 minutes despite the guests holding an 11-7 advantage in shots on goal. The Warriors thought they had scored first with 9:06 left in the period but Jason Bloomingburg's (Canton, Mich./Texas Tornado) apparent goal was waived off due to a hand pass in the offensive zone.
At the 2:31 mark of the second period Justin Cross banged in the rebound of a Tim Madsen shot giving the Purple Eagles a 1-0 lead.
Niagara increased its lead to 2-0 just over two minutes later (4:43 mark) as Cross went glove side high on WSU goalie Matt Kelly (Hull, Mass./Topeka Scarecrows). Cross and Ryan Gale, who started the scoring play, came down on a two-and-zero as both Warrior defensemen went to Madsen who feed Cross.
NU's final goal came only 17 seconds into a five-on-three power play advantage. Matt Caruana took a redirection from Cliff Ketchen off a blueline shot by Trevor Mallon with 5:20 remaining in the middle stanza.
Wayne State prevented the shutout with 25 seconds left in the second period as Nate Higgins (Calgary, Alb./Green Bay Gamblers) was on the doorstep and took a feed from Jason Baclig (Leamington, Ont./Leamington Flyers) and scored past NU goalie Jeff Van Nynatten. Steve Kovalchik (Riverview, Mich./Omaha Lancers) started the scoring play by breaking up an NU rush in the neutral zone.
Both goalies finished with 26 saves and period totals of seven, eight and 11 (Kelly 11-8-7, Van Nynatten 7-11-8). Wayne State went zero-for-five on the power play, while Niagara went one-for-six.
Wayne State will be idle until the United States Air Force Academy visits Compuware Sports Arena on Feb. 26-27. WSU closes out the regular season with two home games against Alabama-Huntsville on March 5-6. The CHA tournament begins on Friday, March 11 in Grand Rapids, Minn.
Notes:
Wayne State is 0-6-1 in the last seven games.
The Warriors are 6-6-1 at Compuware this season and 2-3-1 against CHA foes.
WSU is 5-11-1 when allowing the first goal and 4-13-1 when trailing after 40 minutes.
Wayne State is one-for-27 on the power play over the last four games, while the penalty killing is 19-for-24 over the same time frame.
Steve Kovalchik tied his season-best with a three-game point streak after his assist today. This is his third three-game point streak this year.
Sophomore Nate Higgins scored his eighth goal of the season equaling his freshman total.
With his assist today, sophomore Jason Baclig increased his season total to 20 points, two shy of his rookie total. His 18 assists this season are tied-for-fourth highest in a single season by a Warrior.
Junior goalie Matt Kelly is on pace to shatter the single-season WSU save percentage record of .9094 set by David Guerrera during the 2000-01 season. Kelly is currently at .917.
