OXFORD, Ohio -- The Western Michigan hockey team forced a third and final game in the National Collegiate Hockey Conference Quarterfinals after tying up the series 1-1 with a 7-5 win over Miami at Steve Cady Arena on Saturday night.
The Broncos had six players with at least two points on the night along with goals by Frederik Tiffels, Nolan LaPorte, Colton Hargrove, Kyle Novak, Chris Dienes and Will Kessel. Sheldon Dries, Justin Kovacs and Hargrove each had two assists.
Miami outshot Western Michigan 49-25 on the night but Frank Slubowski made 25 saves in relief of Lukas Hafner to earn the win in net.
The RedHawks took a very early 1-0 lead at 2:24 in the first period. Riley Barber finished off a rush beating Hafner for his 18th goal of the season after a feed from Colin Sullivan.
WMU's Tiffels tied the game up with his first of two unassisted goals at 12:11. On a Miami power play the German national created a turnover at the WMU blue line and skated in on MU goalie Ryan McKay and beat him for his 10th goal of the season. The goal was also the second short-handed goal of the weekend for the Broncos.
Tiffels struck again just 1:33 into the second period to give WMU a 2-1 lead. The freshman forward picked Barber's pocket and created another breakaway, this time beating McKay with a top-shelf backhand shot for his 11th goal of the season.
Just 44 seconds later LaPorte gave put Western Michigan up 3-1. Some highlight puck movement was capped off by a no-look drop pass by Dries to LaPorte and the junior captain buried it for his 11th goal of the season. Hargrove also picked up an assist on the goal.
Austin Czarnik cut the lead to 3-2 on a slap shot from the left point for a power play goal at 8:28 in the second period. The Broncos responded quickly just 1:20 later when Hargrove punched in his 14th of the season. The big forward was hanging around the net with a scrum going on in the corner. LaPorte won the puck and found Hargrove alone in the slot for the easy tap-in.
Czarnik scored his second of the night to bring the lead back to one at 4-3 at 11:03. A bad turnover pulled Hafner from the net and he wasn't able to recover to get back for Czarnik's shot. After that Slubowski was put in net for the remainder of the game, including 13 saves in the final 8:57 of the second period.
WMU responded once again at 14:46 when Novak banked in a shot from behind the net off of the back of McKay and into the net for his fifth of the season to push the lead to 5-3. That spelled the end for McKay and Jay Williams came in for relief.
Just before the end of the second Slubowski made a save on a two-on-one chance and WMU broke out during a period of four-on-four ice. Taylor Fleming go the play started and found Hargrove at the blue line. Hargrove found Dienes trailing and the sophomore defenseman skated to the slot and ripped one past Williams off the cross bar and in for his third goal of the season.
The 6-3 lead stood until 16:22 in the third period when Sean Kuraly fired a shot in from the left circle to cut the lead back to two. The extra-attacker goal was his 18th on the season.
Miami pulled its goalie once again and cut the lead to 6-5 with 23 seconds remaining after a goal by Blake Coleman.
Kessel put the puck into the empty net with 12 seconds left to seal the 7-5 win.
The final game of the series is on Sunday at 7 p.m.
