Wayne State ready for regular season

There was no problem for the Wayne State Warriors on Friday night as they dropped the St. Clair College Saints 5-1 in exhibition play at the State Fairgrounds Coliseum.

Bryan Olds led the attack with a pair of goals and an assist as the Warriors outgunned the Saints 50-14.

Nate Higgins, Mark Nebus, and Taylor Donohoe also scored for Wayne State.

Will Hooper played the first two periods in net for Wayne State and finished with 7 saves. Freshman Brett Bothwell played the final twenty minutes as was a perfect 6 for 6.

Wayne State will now hit the road to face off on a difficult stretch to start the season.

The Warriors will open with a pair of games against #3 Minnesota at the Mariucci Arena next weekend. Then they'll head south to start CHA conference play at Alabama-Huntsville on October 20 and 21.

Michigan ACHA schools ranked

A handful of Michigan ACHA Division I schools cracked the first edition of the weekly rankings this week.

The University of Michigan-Dearborn fell one spot and came in at No. 8, Oakland University jumped up six spots to No. 12 and Eastern Michigan University went from No. 17 to No. 16.

Western Michigan University also received votes, but failed to make the top 20.

Defending ACHA Division I national champion Rhode Island was the overwhelming choice for the top spot in getting 32 of a possible 33 first-place votes. Illinois received the other first-place vote.

Green takes Green-Gold game at WSU

Wayne State played its annual Green and Gold intrasquad game at the Michigan State Fairgrounds on Thursday evening and the Green squad emerged victorious, 8-4.

The game began with a flurry of goals, as the teams combined to light the lamp eight times in the first period. Jason Bloomingburg and Matt Krug each had a goal for the Green team within the first 75 seconds, but Mike Forgie soon got Gold on the board.

The two teams exchanged goals for the rest of the period, as Bloomingburg, Mark Cannon, Tylor Michel, Adam Smith and Stavros Paskaris each netted one for their respective sides. Through the first 20 minutes, Green held a 5-3 lead over Gold.

Paskaris (pictured) scored his second straight 66 seconds into the middle period and Bloomingburg got his hat trick to put Green ahead by four.

Derek Bachynski scored Green's eighth goal in the third period and Matt Boldt closed out the scoring for the Gold squad.

Will Hooper and Dan Vasquez combined for 15 saves for Team Green while Kevin Bonikowski and Brett Bothwell made 31 saves for Team Gold.

Wayne State faces St. Clair College in an exhibition game tonight at the Fairgrounds before heading to No. 3 Minnesota next weekend to open the regular season.

Newest Wolverine has uphill battle

It's a dream come true for Eric Elmblad.

The former Traverse City North Stars' forward has made the Michigan Wolverines as a walk-on. But as playing time is no guarantee, Elmblad isn't worried.

Check out the full story from our sister site, Michigan Junior Hockey.

White over Blue in LSSU intrasquad

Freshman Nathan Perkovich and senior Trent Campbell scored two goals each to lead the White team to a 7-2 victory over the Blue team during Lake Superior State's intrasquad scrimmage at Taffy Abel Arena Saturday.

The White team led 4-0 after the first of two 24-minute halves. The first three goals, including one by Campbell and two by Perkovich, were unassisted.

Dominic Osman, walk-on candidate Sean Kavanaugh and Troy Schwab also scored for the White team. Walk-on candidate Chad Swartzentruber contributed two assists.

Derek R. Smith and Carter Lee scored for the Blue team.

Freshman goaltender Mitch Edmondson had seven saves and gave up four goals in the Blue net. He also totaled seven saves and one goal-against in the White net.

Freshman Pat Inglis stopped 20 of 21 shots during a 36:22 span for the White team. Senior Jeff Jakaitis played 24 minutes, allowing three goals and totaling 13 saves.

Photo courtesy Mike Burrill

GVSU falls to D-I opponents in close games

Lakers to Face National Champion Oakland Next

Grand Valley State University traveled to the east side of the state this past weekend to take on two ACHA Division I opponents. The Lakers faced off with the No. 7 University of Michigan-Dearborn Wolves on Friday and No. 17 Eastern Michigan Univerisity on Saturday.

GVSU came out hard on Friday, but the game was quickly marred by penalties, which killed both teams' flow. Dearborn scored quickly on an early 5-on-3 and connected later with another power-play goal. GVSU scored early in the second with a power-play goal of their own, as Andy Dykstra got his first of the season from Jake Erway and goalie Kevin Chapman. It was then that Grand Valley received seven penalties in a row, including a five minute major. Though continuously on the penalty kill, GVSU was able to stay with the Wolves with the help of a goal from Nick Biondo.

The Lakers strong penalty kill was able to stand until the beginning of the third, when Dearborn began to take advantage of their opportunities and pulled away. GVSU made a late charge with two goals from Nate Morang, and one each from Adam Zobl (pictured above) and Biondo, but it wasn't enough as the Wolves sealed the deal with a goal with 10 seconds left.

Chapman played strong in Lakers net, seeing 45 shots. Chris Moore relieved him in the third and stopped 11 for the night. GVSU received 20 more minutes in penalties than Dearborn, which resulted in a shots ending up to be 56-36 in favor of Dearborn. Erway ended the night with four assists.

The Lakers again started strong on Saturday against Eastern Michigan, dominating the first period everywhere but the scoreboard. Though shots were 21 -7 in the first in favor of GVSU, the Lakers found themselves down 2-1. Biondo scored his third of the weekend for the Lakers. The second was a comedy of errors for GVSU, as though they dominated possession and attack time, Eastern was able to take advantage of multiple miscues and take a 4-1 lead.

GVSU fought back with goals from Dykstra, Dean Watkins and Biondo, but EMU added another goal at the end of the period to go up 5-3. Erway added a final goal in the third, but it was all the Lakers could muster, as they picked up another 10 minutes of penalties to fall by a final score of 7-5.

Grand Valley dominated Eastern in the shot totals, outshooting them by a total of 42-29. Grant Lyon started in net for the Lakers and faced 13 shots, while Moore relieved him in the second and faced 16 shots.

GVSU returns home on Friday to face last year's national champion Oakland University for a home-and-home series. These games will will be the last of six consecutive games against D-I teams for the Lakers.

Wayne State dominates exhibition opener

Sophomore forward Sam Poyton (right) scored four goals and freshman forward Katrina Protopapas added two as the Wayne State women defeated visiting Windsor, 8-2, in an exhibition game held at City Sports Ice Arena Friday night.

Tina Vanderhoeven and Melissa Boal also scored for the Warriors.

All three WSU goaltenders saw action as junior Valery Turcotte started and did not stop any shots. Junior Tiffany Thompson played the second period and stopped one shot. Redshirt freshman Stephanie Rees finished the game in the third period and stopped two shots.

Wayne State outshot Windsor, 41-5. The Warriors only had six power-play opportunities to the Lancers' 12, but they made the most of them as they converted on half.

Wayne State will travel to No. 5 St. Lawrence for a pair of games on Friday and Saturday.