DEARBORN, Mich.— The University of Michigan-Dearborn men's hockey team returned to action with a weekend series against Aquinas College Saints at the UM-Dearborn Fieldhouse in Dearborn, Mich. on Friday night and at Southside Ice Arena in Byron Center, Mich. on Saturday night.
The Wolverines looked to respond after being swept earlier in the season by the Saints. After finding themselves up one after one, the UM-Dearborn offense would explode striking three times in 1:41 and never looked back handing Aquinas a 6-0 defeat in the opening game of the series.
Seth Lause got the scoring started on the power-play by deflecting a shot from captain Tyler Groat passed the Saints netminder with Silas Johnson getting the secondary assist on the play. The Wolverines would get three second period goals with two coming from Billy Brock and another coming from Mikhail Khudenko. UM-Dearborn would seal the game in the third as Brock completed the hat-trick to open the period and Jared Lee adding another in the final minutes. Chance Mathews, Brendan West, Max Hartwell, and Henry Lukkanen would record assists in the game.
Kayden Pickles got the start in net, recording a shutout in the game while making 37 saves.
The following night the Wolverines continued their stingy, defensive play as they looked to complete the series sweep of Aquinas College. West would open the scoring for UM-Dearborn with an assist going to Max Hartwell. Anthony Davis would extend the Wolverine's lead as he connected from a pass from Groat just under four minutes later. After a scoreless second period, the Saints would pull their goalie in the final two minutes, however, UM-Dearborn would ice the game as Groat would gain center before depositing the puck into the empty net with assists going to Mathieu LaForest and Hartwell.
Pickles would once again get the start and would record his second straight shutout, while making 34 saves in the game. Pickles extends his shutout streak to 132:30 over the last seven periods spanning back to the third period against Indiana Tech.
The series sweep extends the Wolverines undefeated streak to 12 games (11-0-1) and improves their record to 15-7-2 overall and 13-4-1 in the WHAC.
UM-Dearborn returns to action with a weekend series against the Concordia University Cardinals at 8:30 PM Friday at the Arctic Coliseum in Chelsea, Mich. and at 7 PM Saturday at the UM-Dearborn Fieldhouse in Dearborn, Mich.
