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 Junior defenseman Dan Iliakis had a goal and an assist against Air Force. |
March 4, 2006
DETROIT - The Wayne State University men's hockey team (6-22-6 overall, 3-12-5 CHA) closed out the 2005-06 regular season falling 5-3 to the United States Air Force Academy (11-19-1 overall, 8-12-0 CHA) Saturday night in a College Hockey America contest at the Michigan State Fairgrounds Coliseum.
The visiting Falcons started strong scoring twice in the first 2:21. Josh Schaffer tallied just 76 seconds into the contest with a shot that went under the pad of WSU senior goalie Matt Kelly (Hull, Mass./Topeka Scarecrows).
Just over a minute later, Air Force's Josh Frider clearing pass from his defensive zone bounced off a Warrior defenseman to Jay Medenwaldt, who carried the puck into the offensive zone and fired a shot on Kelly. Frider was able to put the rebound past Kelly at the 2:21 mark.
Wayne State senior forward John May (Livonia, Mich./Springfield Junior Blues) pulled the Warriors within a goal with 7:20 left in the opening stanza. Matt Krug's (Livonia, Mich./Texas Tornado) neutral zone passed bounced off the skate of AF's Josh Print directly to May, who crossed the blueline and went top shelf over the blocker of Falcon netminder Peter Foster.
Air Force regained its two-goal cushion 48 seconds after May's goal as Eric Ehn had Andrew Ramsey's shot hit his stick and beat Kelly to the far post at the 13:28 mark.
The Falcons tallied the lone goal of the middle period. Matt Charbonneau's blueline shot during an Air Force power play made the score 4-1.
Wayne State battled back outscoring the guests 2-1 in the final frame. Warrior junior defenseman Dan Iliakis (Scarborough, Ont./Georgetown Raiders) lit the lamp during a WSU power play at the 12:12 mark. Iliakis' third of the campaign was assisted by May and sophomore center Stavros Paskaris (Dearborn, Mich./Kewadin Indians).
Five seconds after Wayne State had pulled within two at 4-2, Jason Bloomingburg was assessed a high sticking penalty by assistant referee Chris Davis.
It only took the Falcons 17 seconds with the man-advantage to score their fifth goal of the game. Charbonneau carried the puck from his defensive blueline almost into the left corner of the offensive zone before putting a perfect pass on the tape of Schaffer's stick, that he redirected past Kelly.
The Warriors scored an even-strength goal with 4:29 remaining in the contest as sophomore Adam Krug (Livonia, Mich./Sioux City Musketeers) banged in the rebound of a Derek Bachynski (Belle River, Ont./Leamington Flyers) shot. Iliakis earned his second point of the night by garnering the second assist on Krug's seventh of the campaign.
After being outshot 14-10 in the opening period by the Falcons, the Warriors were even in shots (7-7) in the middle frame and held a 12-6 advantage in the third period.
Kelly made 22 saves in the Wayne State cage, while Foster stopped 26 of WSU's 29 shots.
The Warriors went one-for-four on the power play, with Air Force scoring twice in four man-advantage opportunities.
Wayne State recognized its four-member senior class before the contest. Honored were John May, Steve Kovalchik, Matt Kelly and Greg Poupard.
Wayne State will be the No. 6 seed for the CHA tournament and will play at 7:35 p.m. against the No. 3 seed, Alabama-Huntsville, on Friday, March 10 at the Fairgrounds. Air Force, the No. 5 seed, will skate against Robert Morris, the No. 4 seed, at 3:35 p.m. on March 10th.
