March 1, 2003

Fraser, Mich. - The Wayne State University men's hockey team completed a weekend sweep of Air Force with a 4-3 victory Saturday night at the Great Lakes Sports City Arena in Fraser, Mich.

Freshman right wing Derek MacKay (Sault Ste. Marie, Ont./Soo Thunderbirds) scored the only two goals of the opening period. MacKay now has a team-leading four first goals including three against Air Force as he scored the game's first goal on Jan. 4-5 in Colorado Springs.

MacKay's 11th of the season came 8:23 into the contest off a pass from the left boards by Dustin Kingston (Spencerville, Ont./Brockville Braves). Kingston's pass found MacKay alone in front of Falcon goalie David Goodley. MacKay's fake caught Goodley moving and allowed him to go short side.

With 1:54 left in the first period, MacKay netted his second of the game off a feed from Jason Durbin (Trenton, Mich./Danville Wings) in the corner. Tyler Kindle (Portage, Mich./Bozeman Icedogs) started the power-play goal with a pass to Durbin.

Wayne State increased its lead to 3-0 just 61 seconds into the middle stanza as Billy Collins (Enderby, B.C./Prince George Spruce Kings) took a neutral zone pass from John Grubb (Burlington, N.D./Waterloo Black Hawks) sped down the ice and roofed the puck over Goodley. Collins' nation-leading fifth short-handed goal of the season was his second of the weekend and third this season against Air Force. The five man-down goals in a season also broke the WSU single-season mark of four set by Dustin Kingston during the 1999-2000 campaign.

Air Force got on the board late in the second period as freshman Carson Strang scored his sixth goal of the season at the 16:51 mark. Strang took a shot that missed the net, but he collected the loose puck behind the cage and beat WSU goaltender David Guerrera (St. Leonard, Que./Estevan Bruins) with a wrap-around shot.

Just 2:06 later, MacKay completed his first collegiate hat trick and took over the team lead in power-play goals (with six) as he scored his 13th of the season off assists from Kindle and Durbin.

Air Force's Justin Hamilton scored on a power play at the 11:34 mark of the third period during a flurry in front of the Warrior net. Mike Knaeble netted his first career goal on a centering pass from Kyle Fransdal from behind the net. Goodley was also credited with an assist on the play.

The Falcons continued to pressure the Warriors late in the period. With 1:26 remaining, Air Force pulled its goaltender in favor of an extra skater. After a penalty on Kingston with 37 seconds remaining, the Falcons had a five-on-three advantage, but were never able set up in the offensive end.

Guerrera finished the contest with 32 saves including 13 in the first period and 14 in the second period. Goodley turned aside 22 Wayne State shots including 10 in the middle stanza. WSU scored two power-play goals in five chances, while holding Air Force to one man-advantage marker in five opportunities.

Wayne State improves to 16-16-2 overall and remains in a third place tie in the College Hockey America standings with Bemidji State at 18 points. WSU is 9-7-2 in the league, while the Beavers are 8-6-4. Air Force falls to 10-21-3 overall with a league ledger of 2-13-3.

The Warriors conclude the regular-season with a home-and-home series against league rival Findlay. The Friday, March 7th contest will be Wayne State's senior night for 12 members from the inaugural team. Face-off is slated for 7:05 p.m. at the Great Lakes Sports City Arena in Fraser. Saturday's regular-season finale will start at 7:05 p.m. at Findlay's Clauss Ice Arena.