Feb. 28, 2003

Fraser, Mich. - The Wayne State University men's hockey team snapped a four-game losing streak with a 3-2 College Hockey America victory over visiting Air Force on February 28 at the Great Lakes Sports City Arena in Fraser.

The Warriors scored 11:37 into the game as Dustin Kingston (Spencerville, Ont./Brockville Braves) converted on a nice passing play with linemates Jason Durbin (Trenton, Mich./Danville Wings) and Derek MacKay (Sault Ste. Marie, Ont./Soo Thunderbirds) for his team-leading 14th goal of the season. The lamp-lighter snapped a five-game goalless drought for Kingston, his second longest of the season, while MacKay extended his point streak to four games. It was also a good omen for WSU which entered the game with a 10-3-1 mark when scoring first.

Wayne State increased its lead to 2-0 with 3:52 remaining in the opening period as Chris Vail (Nashua, N.H./Vernon Vipers) gathered the puck after Maxim Starchenko (Kharkov, Ukraine/Powell River Kings) won an offensive zone face-off, during a five-on-three power play, and beat Falcon goaltender Mike Polidor.

Air Force scored the lone goal of the second period (at the 6:30 mark) as Andy Berg converted during a man-advantage situation for his team-leading 21st of the campaign. The Falcons tied the game at the 4:31 mark of the third period when Scott Zwiers scored following a turnover inside its blueline by Wayne State.

With WSU's Jon Brink in the penalty box for obstruction-hooking, Billy Collins (Enderby, B.C./Prince George Spruce Kings) intercepted a neutral zone pass, skated down the right side around an Air Force defenseman cut to the net and back-handed a shot past Polidor for his fourth short-handed goal of the season, tying Union's Nathan Gillies (who also scored his fourth short-handed goal tonight), for the national lead.

Collins second game-winning goal of the season came at the 7:31 mark.

Wayne State goaltender David Guerrera (St. Leonard, Que./Estevan Bruins) turned aside 24 Air Force shots including 10 in the second period. Polidor also finished the game with 24 saves. Wayne State scored one power-play goal in five chances, while the Falcons scored once in eight opportunities.

The Warriors are now 15-16-2 overall and moved into a third-place tie in the CHA with Bemidji State at 18 points (8-7-2). Air Force falls to 10-20-3 overall and 2-12-3 in the league. The teams conclude the weekend series with a 7:05 p.m. face-off on March 1 in Fraser.