FORT WAYNE, Ind. – The No. 18 University of Michigan-Dearborn (19-12-2) men's ice hockey team opened up competition at the 2023 WHAC Tournament on Friday (Feb. 24). The second-seeded Wolverines began what hopes to be a three-day stay in Indiana against the seventh-seeded Rochester (Mich.) Warriors. The Wolverines handled business, taking down the Warriors 6-1. 

UM-Dearborn raced out to an early lead as Brendan West buried a chance in the first 90 seconds of the contest. Joey Cullinan and Bailey Byrd added assists on the goal. Dearborn took advantage of some early jitters from the Warriors as they added two more goals in the opening 10 minutes. Chance Matthews buried an unassisted goal in his first game back from injury, while Mikhail Khudenko added the team's third goal at the 9:40 mark, as he was on the receiving end of a Matthews and Blake Petterle assist. 

The Wolverines extended their lead to four in the second period as Cullinan recorded his second point of the game when he took the Byrd pass and buried it at the 5:52 mark. However, Rochester would get in on the scoring action two minutes later when the Warriors caught the Wolverines on the heels in the defensive zone and snuck one past Eric Polzin for their only goal. With time winding down in the second period, West scored his second goal on the day and his 30th of the season. Byrd and Cullinan again added assists on the goal. The Wolverines would score once in the third period on Khudenko's second of the game and would roll past the Warriors for the 6-1 victory. 

Polzin (7-5-1) got the start in between the pipes for the Wolverines as he stopped 22 of the 23 shots he faced on the afternoon. 

Up Next

UM-Dearborn awaits the winner of the No. 3 vs. No. 6 matchup between Lawrence Tech and Cleary. The winner will face the Wolverines in the semifinals on Saturday (Feb. 25) at 7 pm. All games will be live-streamed on Indiana Tech's Youtube channel.