COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – The Western Michigan hockey team rebounded from a tie on Friday to beat Colorado College, 5-1, on Saturday night. The win secured home ice advantage for the National Collegiate Hockey Conference and head coach Andy Murray picked up his 100th career win as a Bronco.
WMU (19-8-5, 12-8-2-1) had five different goal-scorers on the night, while Jade McMullen had two assists and Ben Blacker made 27 saves to earn his 13th win. The victory also sealed third place in the NCHC standings, the team's highest finish in the NCHC in program history.
Frederik Tiffels gave WMU a 1-0 lead at 10:03 on a power play goal. Corey Schueneman had a shot deflect off of Sheldon Dries behind the net. McMullen took the puck from behind the goal and slid a no-look pass between his legs to at the right post and he punched it in for his sixth goal of the season. The assist for Dries was his 13th of the season and extended his point streak to six games.
At 7:07 in the second period Luke Bafia connected his home-run pass to Matheson Iacopelli at the CC blue line. Iacopelli skated in alone and beat Tiger goalie Alex Leclerc for his team-best 19th goal of the season to give Western Michigan a 2-0 lead.
Minutes later at 11:03 Cam Lee fired a laser through traffic off of a draw by Michael Rebry and into the top-left corner of the net to push the lead to 3-0. The goal was the second of his career and Rebry picked up his eighth assist.
Trevor Gooch cut the lead to 3-1 with a power play goal at 12:41, finishing off a far-post feed from Luc Gerdes.
Schueneman netted a power play goal of his own with 2:10 left in the second period to put the Broncos up 4-1. Schueneman ripped a shot off the cross bar and McMullen grabbed the rebound. He dished it off to Iacopelli and then on to Schueneman and the sophomore defenseman fired a shot from the exact same spot, this time into the net for his fifth goal of the season.
Hugh McGIng added to the lead, making it 5-1, on his fifth goal of the season at 4:21 in the third period. McGing fired a loose puck into the net from the slot.
Western Michigan finished 2-for-3 on the power play while holding Colorado College to just 1-for-6.
The Broncos return home to wrap up the regular season, hosting No. 2 Minnesota-Duluth on Friday and Saturday. Tickets are available by calling 1-888-4-WMUTIX and online at wmubroncos.com/tickets.
