Adrian gets commitment from goalie

According to the York Region Newspaper Group, Adrian College has received a commitment from Pickering (Ont.) Panthers Junior A goalie Brad Fogal.

"Everything is set out in a way that seems on the right path," said Fogal, a Sharon, Ont., native, who may even consider taking a swing at cracking the Bulldogs' men's varsity baseball roster, to the paper. "They're really pressing to go (Division I). Even their rink is built for a fairly easy expansion."

Fogal, 21, has posted a 16-11-1 record along with a .912 save percentage and 3.15 goals-against average since he was traded from the Newmarket Hurricanes to the Panthers in mid-October.

Complete story HERE.

Katz scores Rookie of the Week

Wayne State Warrior freshman forward Jared Katz was named the College Hockey America Rookie of the Week, for his performance last weekend against conference rival Alabama-Huntsville.

Katz assisted on the Warriors only goal in Friday’s opener against UAH, and added a goal and assist in Saturday's 4-1 win over the Chargers.

Katz has a point in nine of his last 11 games and leads all CHA rookies with eight goals on the season.

The award is his third of the season.

The Warriors will host the 17th ranked Niagara Purple Eagles back at the Coliseum this Friday and Saturday night.

Ferris continues home winning streak

Special to MiCHO by Andy Oliver

Ferris State avenged Friday’s night overtime loss to Michigan State by clipping the sixth-ranked Spartans 2-1 in Big Rapids on Tuesday night.

Bulldogs freshman Aaron Lewicki started the scoring in the first period with his sixth goal of the season.

Blair Riley received a pass from Alex Spezia to set up a 3-on-1 rush into the MSU zone. Riley hit Lewicki with a nice pass in the high slot and Lewicki buried it.

Michigan State responded five minutes later with a power-play goal from Tim Crowder, his 11th goal of the season.

Tim Kennedy’s pass to Justin Abdelkader breaking in on the right side set up the pass to Crowder for a one-timer from the left faceoff dot that beat Ferris goalie Derek MacIntyre.

The scoreless second period saw a lot of physical play with the check of the game going to Ferris State’s Zac Pearson, who laid out MSU forward Tyler Howells as he tried to enter the Ferris zone with the puck.

With only 1:27 left on the game clock, Ferris State forward Adam Miller scored the game-winning goal, his sixth goal of the season.

The goal was set up by Pearson, slipping past an MSU check on the right boards, falling to his knees still with the puck and centering the pass to Miller who tucked it in on the far post past MSU goalie Jeff Lerg.

The win improves Ferris’s record to 10-19-3 and 7-15-2 in the CCHA.

The loss breaks Michigan State’s nine-game unbeaten streak and drops their overall record to 18-9-3 and 14-7-3 in the conference.

MacIntyre, with 23 saves, earned his fifth win of the season while Lerg made 28 saves on the night in a losing effort.

On the power play, Ferris went 0-for-3 and MSU was 1-for-4.

Up next, Ferris will be hosting Bowling Green for two games at the Ewigleben Arena this Friday and Saturday night.

Michigan State will face Western Michigan in a home-and-home as the Green and White try to lock up a bye for the first round of CCHA playoffs.

MiCHO Power Poll 2.13.2007

For the sixth week in a row, the Michigan State Spartans are on top of our MiCHO Power Poll. The sixth-ranked team in the country clipped Ferris State in Big Rapids on Friday and held on for a 3-3 tie with Michigan at the Joe on Saturday night. The ninth-ranked Michigan Wolverines had their six-game winning streak snapped with a shocking 3-2 loss to Bowling Green on Friday night.

The Michigan Tech Huskies also advance to the third spot after taking three of four points for fifth-ranked Denver during Winter Carnival in Houghton.

1) Michigan State, 18-8-3 (beat FSU, tied UM)
2) Michigan, 21-10-1 (lost to BGSU, tied MSU)
3) Michigan Tech, 13-14-5 (beat and tied No. 5 Denver)
4) Lake Superior State, 15-14-3 (swept at No. 12 Miami)
5) Western Michigan, 14-15-1 (swept Alaska)
6) Northern Michigan, 12-20-2 (swept by OSU)
7) Wayne State, 8-20-0 (split with UAH)
8) Ferris State, 9-19-3 (lost to MSU)

Each week, MichiganCollegeHockey.com editors Matt Mackinder and Tom Balog will compile the MiCHO Power Poll. The poll will comprise the eight Division I teams in the State of Michigan. (national rankings and rankings in parenthesis reflect the USCHO/CSTV Division I Men's Poll)

FU men sweep Minnesota-Crookston

The Finlandia men swept Minnesota-Crookston at home last weekend and in the process inched closer towards first place in the MCHA.

Saturday, the Lions' took a 6-2 decision at home and added a 5-2 win Sunday.

Travis Hanson and Ryan Sullivan scored twice and Marc Marcotte and Josh Paquette potted singles in FU's win Saturday. Lukas Alberer made 25 saves in net.

Yesterday, Joe Juntilla needed to make just 19 saves for the victory. Paquette scored a pair along with single goals from Keith Johnstone, Sullivan and Matt Krueger.

Juntilla added an assist on Paquette's first goal to boot.

The Lions (16-7-0, 14-4-0) host the Milwaukee School of Engineering this Friday and Saturday. MSOE leads the MCHA by four points over Finlandia.

Finlandia's women's squad (4-15-2, 0-10-1 NCHA) was idle last weekend and travel to Wisconsin-Eau Claire this weekend.

WMU takes two straight from Nanooks

Brian Bicek scored his second-straight game-winning goal for Western Michigan Saturday as the Broncos swept the Alaska Nanooks with a 3-1 win at Lawson Ice Arena.

The win gave the Brown & Gold their first two-game sweep in CCHA play and second sweep in any series this season. WMU swept Alabama-Huntsville (Jan. 26-27) in a 5-0 victory and 6-5 overtime win.

Paul Szczechura and Jeff LoVecchio also scored and goalie Riley Gill stopped 32 shots for Western Michigan.

Friday night, Bicek scored both Bronco goals and Gill made 26 saves in WMU's 2-1 triumph.

Western Michigan (14-15-1, 11-12-1 CCHA) will now take on Michigan State on Friday at Lawson Ice Arena for Senior Night, which will air on Comcast Local, and then will head to East Lansing to complete the home-and-home series with the Spartans.

Oakland featured on Fox Sports Net

Oakland University was featured on Saturday's Detroit Sports Report on Fox Sports Net as part of FSN's coverage of Hockey Day In Michigan.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x16tyr_ou-hockey-on-fsn-detroit

Wolverines fall to BGSU, tie Spartans

After Michigan lost to Bowling Green Friday night, the Wolverines looked to avenge that defeat with a solid game against Michigan State on Saturday night at Joe Louis Arena.

While they didn't play a solid game, Andrew Cogliano salvaged a point for U-M by scoring with 1:51 to go, bringing the Wolverines into a 3-3 tie after being down 3-0.

"We put ourselves in a hole, but I thought our team had more conviction tonight," Michigan head coach Red Berenson said. "They stayed with the game plan; they continued to play hard. There was a sense of urgency; we put pucks to the net, and I thought our whole team just played better. Now, obviously last night's game had something to do with it, but we had something to prove against our opponent tonight, too."

MSU head coach Rick Comley wasn't as cheerful, but still positive.

"We are what we are," Conley said. "We know that we have some flaws on this team, but you have to remember that we're 11-1-2 in our last 14 games. We haven't generated much offense all year, but that's okay. We're not going to go out of here and hang our heads. This was not a national championship game. It was another game and we didn't hurt ourselves, so we'll take the good out of it."

Chris Summers scored twice for Michigan and Justin Abdelkader added a pair for MSU. Bryan Lerg also scored for Michigan State.

Jeff Lerg made 54 saves for MSU and Billy Sauer kicked out 19 for U-M.

"I thought we got real tired, but they had a lot to do with it," added Comley. "They came at us with some pretty good speed, got 57 shots but didn't win the game. The thing you have to remember is that we're sitting in the locker room, getting outshot like that and we still get a point. So the bottom line is to be resilient and find a way to get it done. We just got tired, and they used their speed to take advantage of some situations that we couldn't deal with very well."

Michigan (21-10-1, 16-7-1 CCHA) is at Lake Superior State this Friday and Sunday, while the Spartans (18-8-3, 14-6-3 CCHA) travels to Ferris State Tuesday night before playing a home-and-home set with Western Michigan this weekend starting Friday in Kalamazoo.

Buckeyes sweep Wildcats in Columbus

In Ohio for the weekend, the Northern Michigan Wildcats dropped a pair of games to the Ohio State Buckeyes, 3-2 and 4-1.

Friday's game was tied 2-2 when the third period began, but an OSU power-play goal by Mathieu Beaudoin midway through the final frame cemented the score. The power play was the biggest aspect of the game, according to NMU head coach Walt Kyle.

"We could have had them," Kyle said. "But their power play beat our power play. That was really the difference in the game."

In Saturday's game, the Buckeyes received a strong effort from netminder Joe Palmer as they completed the sweep of NMU (12-20-2, 9-16-1 CCHA) .

"[Joe] made some tremendous saves," OSU head coach John Markell said. "If they would have gotten one, who knows, the way they were controlling the puck down low. We survived it."

Palmer stopped 30 of 31 shots in the win.

Despite controlling the play throughout large portions of the game, something that Kyle agrees with, the Wildcats mustered just one goal. Zach Tarkir netted the lone marker early in the third to cut the lead to 3-1 before the Wildcats were silenced once more.

The game-winning goal for OSU came within the first minute of the second period, when former Michigan State Spartan Tommy Goebel scored during a 4-on-4 stretch of hockey.

NMU netminder Bill Zaniboni also stopped 30 shots in the loss. For the weekend, Zaniboni allowed seven goals on 72 shots (.903). At the other end of the ice, Palmer allowed three goals on 51 shots.

NMU has a weekend off before finishing their schedule out with a home series against the Miami RedHawks. The Wildcats' special teams continued to struggle over the weekend (1-for-9 PP, 12-for-16 PK) and must improve for a playoff run.

"For us to be successful in the playoffs, we are going to have to find a way to win a special teams game," Kyle said. "We have to, because we don't score a lot of goals."

MTU takes three points from No. 5 Denver

Michigan Tech came into the weekend two points out of home ice for the playoffs and looked to surprise the nation's No. 5 team, Denver. After a three-point weekend, MTU is still two points out, but playing very good hockey as they won 2-1 Friday and tied 4-4 on Saturday.

Friday saw the home team get the lead early when Geoff Kinrade put home a shot on the power play to give the Huskies a 1-0 lead. Minutes later, DU tied it up on a quick shot from the top of the circle.

Less than two minutes into the third, Tyler Schworchinski netted the game winner, beating the DU netminder with a quick wrister. DU heavily outshot MTU in the third, but Michael-Lee Teslak and the MTU defense were up to the task. Teslak ended the night with 23 saves, with 12 coming in the third period alone.

Saturday was a different story as the visitors came out flying, and opened the scoring with a pair of quick goals. It was then up to the home team to match the scoring, and they did. Jimmy Kerr and Kinrade tallied goals in the first for the Huskies, ending the period in a 2-2 tie.

DU struck first in the second, regaining the lead. Then it was Tyler Shelast, with his 13th goal of the season, evening the game again.

MTU struck again, this time to take their first lead of the game in the third. This time, it was Malcolm Gwilliam who was able to get the puck past the netminder, giving MTU the 4-3 lead. It stayed that way until four minutes to go in the game, when a shot from beyond the blue line fooled netminder Rob Nolan.

The game went to overtime, but neither of the teams had the answer. Nolan ended the game with 26 saves, including three big stops in OT.

Michigan Tech (13-14-5, 8-11-5 WCHA) has the weekend off, but resumes action at home Feb. 23-24 as Wisconsin (tied with MTU for sixth) makes the trip to Houghton.

Wayne State splits weekend at Niagara

The Wayne State Warriors (12-15-1, 4-4-0 CHA) split their weekend series at Niagara as they lost 6-2 on Friday and earned a 2-1 win on Saturday. With the victory, Wayne State retained second place in the CHA rankings.

A colossal first period saw the Purple Eagles score four straight goals on netminder Valery Turcotte before she was pulled and replaced by Tiffany Thompson (pictured). Niagara added another goal in the second period before Sam Poyton scored on a breakaway to put the Warriors on the board. Chelsea Burnett and Lindsey DiPietro assisted on the goal, which was Poyton's 16th of the season.

A Wayne State power play late in the second period allowed Poyton and Melissa Boal to set up DiPietro for her fifth goal of the season and improve the score to 5-2. But Niagara forward Ashley Riggs capped off her evening hat trick with a goal midway through the third period.

Despite the loss, Wayne State outshot Niagara 44-20. Turcotte made three saves in her 13 minutes of play and Thompson had eleven after entering the game.

Thompson started Saturday's game and gave up her only goal less than a minute into play. Halfway through the first, Boal and Brandi Frakie set up freshman Katrina Protopapas to tie the score. Boal scored her 22nd goal of the season on a breakaway in the second period, and it proved to be the game-winner.

The Warriors outshot the Purple Eagles 31-29; Thompson had 28 saves.

The Warriors play their last road series of the season when they face No. 1 Mercyhurst this weekend.

Warriors split with Alabama-Huntsville

The Wayne State Warriors had an up-and-down weekend as they split with conference foe Alabama-Huntsville at the Michigan State Fairgrounds Coliseum.

The visiting Chargers controlled play on Friday and skated to a relatively easy 3-1 win.

Blueliner Scott Kalinchuk scored a pair of power play markers in the second period to pace UAH to just their first win in the last four games.

Grant Selinger also scored for the Chargers and freshman netminder Blake MacNicol stopped 23 shots for his first collegiate win.

Warriors forward Nate Higgins scored his team-leading ninth goal of the season on a one-timer from Jared Katz at 11:34 of the second period.

Brett Bothwell stopped 21 of 24 shots for WSU.

The Warriors retuned to the win column on Saturday as they trounced the Chargers 4-1.

Dan Illiakis and Jason Baclig scored about five minutes apart in the second period to put the Warriors up 2-0.

Brett McConnachie scored the lone goal for the Chargers at 14:46, but that’s as close as the visitors would come.

Katz picked up a 4-on-3 power play tally with 23 seconds left in the period to put Wayne State up 3-1 after 40 minutes of play.

Mark Nebus added a third period marker as the Warriors snapped their 3-game losing skid.

Senior Will Hooper got the start in net for Wayne and stopped 17 of 18 shots for his much-needed second win of the year.

MacNicol turned away 28 of 32 shots for UAH.

Wayne State and Alabama-Huntsville finished their four-game regular season series with each team winning a pair of games.

The Warriors (8-20-0, 4-10-0 CHA) will continue their six-game home stand with a pair of games against No. 18-ranked Niagara at the Coliseum next weekend.

ACHA Report 2.11.07

Around the State of Michigan, ACHA teams are gearing up for playoff runs.

Led by the tenth-ranked Oakland Golden Grizzlies, four in-state squads are ranked in the latest ACHA Division 1 Men's Top 20.

The Davenport Panthers pace the top D-2 teams in the state and are in second place in the Central Division, just five points behind first place Illinois State.

Only two points separate the top 3 teams in the Division 3 North. The Hope Flying Dutchmen hold down the top spot with the Northwood Timberwolves just a point behind.

The Michigan State Spartans are the new No. 3 team in the latest ACHA Women's Division 1 national poll after splitting with No. 1 Lindenwood.

If you are interested in covering ACHA hockey in Michigan, please click here for more information.

Men's Division 1

Western Michigan 18-16-3 (15)
Eastern Michigan 16-18-1 (18)
Oakland 15-12-2 (10)
Mich-Dearborn 15-18-1 (16)

Numbers in parenthesis () are the current ACHA D1 rankings.

Men's Division 2

Davenport 25-7-4 (1)
Grand Valley 16-13-5 (4)
Michigan 14-8-2 (3)
Michigan State 14-9-1 (2)
Central Michigan 13-10-3 (5)
Ferris State 9-16-2 (9)
Northern Michigan 5-12-13
Michigan Tech 3-8-2

Numbers in parenthesis () are the current ACHA D2 Regional rankings.

Men's Division 3

Hope 22-2-0 (1)
Northwood 21-2-0 (2)
Saginaw Valley 12-9-1 (5)
Calvin 12-9-1 (4)
Oakland 12-9-1 (6)
Lansing CC 11-11-0
Lawrence Tech 9-13-0 (t8)
Alpena CC 8-14-0
Lake Superior 7-9-0
Grand Valley 6-13-0
Ferris State 5-10-0
Albion 1-16-0

Numbers in parenthesis () are the current ACHA D3 Regional rankings.

Women's Division 1

Western Michigan 16-7-1 (5)
Michigan State 10-1-0 (3)
Michigan 8-10-2 (7)
Northern Michigan 0-19-1

Numbers in parenthesis () are the current ACHA Women’s D1 rankings.