SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- The Western Michigan hockey team trailed twice, including a 2-0 first period deficit, but rallied to sweep the Notre Dame Fighting Irish on a Colton Hargrove goal with 1:06 left in the third period at Compton Family Arena on Saturday night.
Sheldon Dries forced a turnover in the left corner of the Notre Dame zone and the defender turned it right over to Hargrove. The junior forward fired from the middle of the left circle and beat Cal Peterson for his sixth goal of the season and second of the series for the game-winner.
The Broncos also picked up goals from Justin Kovacs, Will Kessel and Nolan LaPorte. Lukas Hafner made 21 saves in his eighth win of the season. WMU finished 2-for-5 on the power play and held Notre Dame to just 1-for-6.
UND jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first periods on goals by Thomas DiPauli and Vince Hinostroza. DiPauli tapped in a power play goal from right in front of the crease at 6:13 on a feed from Mario Lucia. Jordan Gross fired a shot wide and it bounced off the boards to Lucia, who found DiPauli unmarked in the slot.
The Fighting Irish went up 2-0 at 15:04 on Hinostroza's goal. During a four-on-four spell DiPauli skated to the top of the slot and dished it to Hinostroza for a breakaway from the top of the right circle. The junior forward put the puck past Hafner for his third of the season.
Head coach Andy Murray called a time out after the goal and the broncos responded. Scott Moldenhauer fired a pass into the UND zone and it was picked out of the air by Kovacs' stick. The senior forward then skated through two Fighting Irish defenders and created enough space to bury the puck for his third goal of the season and second of the series.
Just over a minute later at 16:57 Kessel scored on the power play to tie the game up at 2-2. Tiffels found Kessel down low and the senior spun to make a shot but the puck was deflected up in the air and over starting goalie Chad Katunar's shoulder and into the net. It was the fourth goal of the season for Kessel with Tiffels picking up his fifth assist of the season and Talyor Fleming tallying his eighth.
Lucia opened the second period with his 13th goal of the season to give Notre Dame a 3-2 lead at 2:05. Hinostroza dumped a shot on net but the puck was bobbled and Lucia skated in to punch it into the net.
LaPorte responded at 10:27 to tie the game up at 3-3 on his seventh goal of the season. During a five-minute major power play Hargrove found LaPorte at the right point and LaPorte pulled the puck back and then fired it past Katunar, who was replaced by Petersen to start the third period, for the game-tying goal.
WMU outshot the Fighting Irish 9-6 in the third period, including Hargrove's late game-winner.
Western Michigan heads back into National Collegiate Hockey Conference play on the road at Minnesota-Duluth next Friday and Saturday.
