Warriors sweep rival Robert Morris

The Wayne State Warriors continued their best stretch of hockey this season with a two-game sweep of CHA foe Robert Morris at the Coliseum over the weekend.

Friday night's opener was a seesaw affair, but a huge third period pushed the Warriors to a big 7-4 win over the Colonials.

The Colonials jumped out to a 2-0 lead before the 10-minute mark in the first period.

The Warriors responded with goals by Jared Katz and Derek Bachynski and the score was tied up by the 5:46 of the second.

RMU went back on top again less then four minutes later on a goal by Chris Margott, but the Green and Gold unloaded for five straight markers to seal the game.

Jon Grabarek started the onslaught by tying the game with a power-play goal at 14:08 of the second.

Jason Bloomingburg gave the Warriors their first lead at 4:46 of the third and then the Tylor Michel show began.

Michel scored the eventual game winner at 9:56, another even-strength goal at 12:33, and then notched a shorthanded empty-netter at 17:53 for his first career hat trick.

The Colonials added a late goal, but it wasn't enough as the Warriors earned just their second conference win of the season.

Blueliner Dan Illiakis (pictured) contributed to the big win with three assists.

Brett Bothwell stopped 25 of 29 in net for WSU for the victory.

Saturday night was not as high scoring, but it might have been more exciting as the Warriors pulled off a 2-1 win.

After over 40 minutes of scoreless play, senior Jason Baclig opened the scoring with a power-play goal at 1:56 of the third period.

Aaron Clarke countered for the Colonials less than a minute later to tie the score at 1-all.

Illiakis capped a fine weekend with the game-winner 7:24 to give the Warriors their first series sweep since knocking off Merrimack in two straight on December 9-10, 2005.

Bothwell started between the pipes again for Wayne and stopped 25 of 26 to even his personal record at 6-6-0.

Ice Chips…

- The Warriors have won three of their last four games and will be on the road at the Dwyer Arena next weekend for a pair of conference games against the 16^th-ranked Niagara Purple Eagles.

- With their seventh win on Saturday night, the Warriors have already surpassed last years win total with 10 games left to play.

- Michel's hat trick took only 7:57 to complete, marking a new school record.