KALAMAZOO -- The Western Michigan hockey team rode
Dane Walters' first career hat trick to a 6-1 win over Bowling Green in front of 3,599 fans at Lawson Ice Arena on Saturday night.
Walters netted the game-winner in the second period and the Broncos poured in on, scoring five unanswered goals.
Trevor Elias,
Justin Kovacs and
Dan DeKeyser also tallied for the Broncos (9-4-5, 7-4-3-3, CCHA).
Matt Tennyson and
Chase Balisy each had two assists on the night for WMU, who remains tied with Notre Dame for second place in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association.
Frank Slubowski made 17 saves and allowed just one goal in his sixth win of the season. WMU extended its unbeaten streak to five games and have now scored power play goal in the last four.
The Broncos took an early 1-0 lead at 3:01 in the first period on a wrist shot from Tennyson just beyond the right circle. The shot was deflected into the net off of Elias for his sixth of the season and second of the series. Tennyson tallied his fifth assist and
Ian Slater picked up his seventh.
Bowling Green tied it 1-1 at 12:27 in the second period on a goal by James McIntosh. McIntosh redirected a shot by Jake Sloat between Slubowski's legs for his first of the season.
The lead didn't last long as Walters netted his first of the night, the game-winner, just over two minutes later at 14:44. The Broncos were on a power play and
Shane Berschbach found Balisy in the left circle. The sophomore centerman faked BGSU goalie Andrew Hammond out of position and centered it to Walters, who put it into an open net for his seventh of the season.
Just 2:06 later the Broncos pushed the lead to 3-1 when Kovacs redirected a blast from Tennyson into the net for his first collegiate goal. Tennyson unleashed the shot from just in front of the right circle and Kovacs put his stick on it to redirect the puck between Hammond's legs. Tennyson picked up his sixth assist of the season and second on the night, while freshman defenseman
Garrett Haar also tallied an assist.
With just 16 seconds remaining in the second period the Broncos tallied for the third time in a six minute span. Balisy found DeKeyser just above the left circle and the sophomore defenseman rifled it off the post and into the net for his third goal of the season. Balisy tallied his team-leading 13th assist and Walters also picked up a helper, giving him his first career four-point game.
Walters added two more to complete the hat-trick late in the third period. The first came at 13:25 on a wrist shot from the right circle and the second came at 17:59 when he redirected a shot from
Dennis Brown into the net. Walters has now scored five goals in the month of December and seven points (5g,2a) in his last four games.
Western Michigan has a few weeks off before heading to future NCHC opponent St. Cloud State for a pair of games on Dec. 29 and 30 at 8 p.m.
