This weekend the Eastern Michigan University Eagles (16-21) took on the University of Michigan-Dearborn Wolverines (19-18) on Feb. 14-15 both home and away, taking both games.
On Friday, the Eagles snapped their four game losing streak with a 5-4 win over the Wolverines.
“It’s always nice to end a losing streak, but especially against our rivals and especially on senior weekend,” Associate Coach Rob Hodnicki said. Both teams held Senior Night festivities this weekend. It’s very important to get hot at the right time and play our best at playoff time.”
Senior Nick Taurence opened the scoring for EMU at 18:12 of the first period with assists going to juniors Anthony Stankiewicz and Bryan Kozlowski.
The Eagles would score again at 14:03 with a goal from junior Jordan Roemer with an assist from sophomore Tony Gasser.
U-M would cut the deficit to one on a power play goal at 13:22. EMU answered the goal with two more of their own before the period ended with the first one coming short handed and unassisted from senior Jason Simota at 13:02. The second one would come at 11:42 from Kozlowski with assists from Taurence and Simota.
The Eagles would open the scoring for the second period on a goal from junior Zachary Willis with an assist coming from junior Mike Comben at 17:46.
The Wolverines would score two more goals in the second period cutting the deficit to 5-3 before entering the third period.
Michigan scored the lone goal of the third period on the power play but it would not be enough as the Eagles would hold on to secure a victory.
“We did a good job of attacking. We got the puck and went at them instead of brining it back in our end,” Hodnicki said. “We attacked. We were physical, supported each other, and made skill plays with the puck. We got quality shots on the goalie and traffic in front of him.”
On Saturday, Eastern headed to Dearborn to the University of Michigan-Dearborn Ice Arena to take on the Wolverines again.
Freshman Justin Tummel would open the scoring for the Eagles at 15:35 of the first period with assists from senior Rick Laurence and freshman Adam Pinkowski.
The Wolverines would come back with a goal of their own at 11:36 to tie the game up before the end of the period.
Freshman Tyler Annett would light the lamp for the Eagles at 6:13 with an assist coming from senior Bobby Gasser. The Wolverines would answer back again in the second to tie things up.
Going into the third tied 2-2 the Eagles would score two more goals. The first coming at 19:19 on a power-play from Willis with assists to Comben and Roemer. The second would also be from Willis at 13:44 with assists from Roemer and Gasser.
The Wolverines would score twice more in the period to tie up the game. However the Eagles had other plans as they scored two unanswered goals to seal the 6-4 victory. The first was from sophomore Ryan Faucheux with assists from Gasser and freshman Dean Gunther. The second coming from Taurence with assists from Stankiewicz and Simota.
“I think when it comes to playoff time, your team is done learning,” Hodnicki said. “We’ve tried to teach throughout the year. Now, it comes down to execution— which team can execute the best while eliminating mistakes and breakdowns.”
The Eagles will take part next in the GLCHL Playoffs versus the University of Michigan-Dearborn Wolverines at 2:30 p.m. on Friday Feb. 21.
They will also take part in playoff games on Saturday Feb. 22 and Sunday Feb. 23 both at Noon.
The teams played are yet to be determined..
