KALAMAZOO, Mich. – The ninth-ranked Western Michigan hockey team rebounded after a tough Friday night to defeat North Dakota, 4-2, in front of a sellout crowd at Lawson Ice Arena on Saturday night.
Freshman defenseman Michael Joyaux netted his first two collegiate goals and the Broncos (17-10-2, 10-7-1-1) also picked up tallies from Josh Passolt and Hugh McGing. Trevor Gorsuch made 24 saves to earn his fifth of the season. WMU outshot UND 28-26 tonight and finished 2-for-3 on the power play.
After a scoreless first period, Western Michigan struck first at 7:00 in the second period. Joyaux got a feed from Corey Schueneman on the power play and fired it from the left circle and into the net for his first career goal. Schueneman tallied his 12th assist of the season on the goal and Wade Allison also picked up his fourth.
Minutes later Joyaux struck again on the power play. Cam Lee passed it off to Joyaux at the top of the right circle and he fired a shot through traffic and a scree by Austin Rueschhoff and into the net. Lee picked up his 15th assist, while Rueschhoff also tallied a helper, his 13th of the year.
Passolt pushed the lead to 3-0 just 4:23 into the third period. Rueschhoff again provided a screen in front of the net and Passolt's shot from the top of the left circle got past UND goalie Adam Scheel. Passolt's goal was his team-leading 16th, with Lee picking up another assist and Cole Gallant registering his seventh of the season.
North Dakota scored two goals in quick succession in the middle of the third period. Gavin Hain had a puck deflect off of him and into the net to cut the lead to 3-1. After the goal Gorsuch was assessed a penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct and Jordan Kawaguchi scored with one second left on the power play to cut the lead to 3-2.
WMU went down a man again when Lee was called for kneeing with 3:49 left to go. Mattias Samuelsson broke up play in the Western Michigan zone and flipped the puck out to center ice. Jade McMullen made a play on the puck and took it down the ice on a 2-on-1 rush. McMullen passed it off to McGing and he faked out Scheel before sliding the puck by him for his 13th goal of the season and third short-handed goal of the year to push the lead to 4-2.
UND pulled its goalie in the final minute but the Broncos held strong and took the season series from North Dakota 3-1.
WMU heads back out on the road, traveling to Colorado College for a pair of games on Friday and Saturday.
