WSU Icers Lose At Northern Michigan

The Wayne State University men's hockey team lost a 4-1 decision at Northern Michigan Friday night (Jan. 18) to complete its non-conference schedule.

The Warriors scored the only goal of the opening period when Jon Brink (Portage, MI/West Michigan Warriors) netted his sixth of the campaign off an assist from Jason Durbin (Trenton, MI/Danville Wings).

Northern Michigan would score three times in the middle stanza and once in the third period for the win.

Mike Stutzel recorded his ninth of the year just 40 seconds into the second period to tie the game at one. Bryce Cockburn tallied the game-winner just past the halfway mark (10:08) and Chris Gobert completed the second period scoring with his marker at 13:32.

Stutzel added his second of the night at 13:26 of the third period for the final goal of the game.

David Guerrera (St. Leonard, QUE/Estevan Bruins) made 24 saves in the Wayne State net, while Tuomas Tarkki had 30 saves for the Wildcats.

The Warriors outshot the hosts 31-28 but went zero-for-two on the power play. NMU failed to score on its one power-play chance.

Wayne State is now 10-11-3 on the season and is off until playing a home-and-home series against College Hockey America rival Findlay on Feb. 1-2. The Wildcats improve to 15-7-2.

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Wayne State Falls At Northern Michigan

The Wayne State men's hockey team suffered a 6-3 setback at Northern Michigan Thursday night (Jan. 17) to fall to 10-10-3 overall.

The ninth-ranked Wildcats, 14-7-2, scored twice in each period and outshot the Warriors 37-25.

NMU's Bryce Cockburn netted his 13th of the season 3:17 into the contest off assists from Chad Theuer and Mike Stutzel. The Wildcats increased their lead to two when Sean Connolly scored at 16:10 of the opening period off assists from Sean Owens and Chris Gobert. Gobert made it 3-0 when he tallied his sixth of the season during an NMU power play 4:35 into the middle stanza.

WSU junior left wing Dusty Kingston (Spencerville, ONT/Brockville Braves) scored his team-leading 11th goal, unassisted, at 5:51 of the second period. The Wildcats regained their three-goal advantage just 65 seconds later when Stutzel scored his eighth of the year.

Freshman left wing Nathan Rosychuk (Athabasca, ALB/Grande Prairie Storm) scored his fifth of the year with 6:16 remaining in the second period off an assist from Brent Renfrew (Fairbanks, AK/Soo Indians).

Warrior freshman center Billy Collins (Enderby, BC/Prince George Spruce Kings) scored his seventh of the season in the third period that was sandwiched around NMU goals by Alan Swanson and Theuer.

David Guerrera (St. Leonard, QUE/Estevan Bruins) made 31 saves for Wayne State, while NMU starting netminder Craig Kowalski had 21 saves in just over 51 minutes of action. Back-up goalie Kevin Hulsey had one save in nearly nine of minutes of playing time.

The Warriors went zero-for-five with the man-advantage, while the Wildcats scored on one of their five opportunities.

The teams complete the weekend series Friday, Jan. 18 with a 7:05 p.m. faceoff at the Berry Events Center in Marquette.