THIS WEEK
The Western Michigan hockey team is back at home to take on No. 4 Minnesota-Duluth on Friday and Saturday. Friday's game is slated for 6:05 p.m. and Saturday's at 4:05 p.m. Both can be seen live on NCHC.tv and heard live on the Bronco Radio Network. Please note Friday's radio broadcast will be on 590 AM/106.9 FM WKZO and at WKZO.com.
 
LAST WEEK
The Broncos went on the road and split with No. 4/5 St. Cloud State, falling on Friday 5-1 and winning 5-4 in overtime on Saturday.
 
SCSU scored just 2:51 into the first period to put the Broncos into an early 1-0 hole on Friday. Jami Krannila scored short-handed at 10:48 to push the lead to 2-0. Easton Brodzinski scored just 28 seconds into the second period to add to the lead before Kranilla scored again early in the third period to make it 4-0. Ty Glover scored on the power play at 8:29 to cut the lead to 4-1 but SCSU would score again in the final minute to seal the win.
 
On Saturday Brodzinski scored on the power play at 10:52 in the first period to give the Huskies a 1-0 lead. The Broncos answered back just 51 seconds later on the first goal of what ended up being an historic night for Michael Joyaux. Cole Gallant passed the puck out of a scrum in front of the benches to Ethen Frank at the SCSU blue line. With all the players bunched up near the benches it created a 2-on-0 rush for Frank and Joyaux. Frank drove the net and dished it off at the last second to Joyaux for the tap-in goal. Spencer Meier scored for St. Cloud State at 15:12 to send WMU to the locker room down 2-1 after 20 minutes. Jason Polin tied it up on a power play goal, punching in a rebound on a shot by Ronnie Attard at 3:27 in the second period. Gallant found Joyaux open at the back door for a goal at 7:46 to give WMU its first lead of the weekend at 3-2. Jared Cockrell scored unassisted at 13:59 to tie it up at 3-3 before Sam Hentges tallied at 10:30 in the third period to give the Huskies a 4-3 lead. WMU pulled Austin Cain from net in the final minutes for the extra attacker and Joyaux fired a low shot through traffic and into the net with 18 seconds left to tie it up. The goal gave him his first career hat trick and made history with the junior becoming the first defenseman in NCHC history to record a hat trick. Drew Worrad scored just 43 seconds into overtime to hand WMU the win.
 
ABOUT THAT HAT TRICK
Since the inception of the National Collegiate Hockey Conference the league has had defensemen earn All-American honors 14 times. It has also seen two defensemen, Denver's Will Butcher (2017) and Minnesota-Duluth's Scott Perunovich (2020), earn the prestigious Hobey Baker Award. In the eight years of the league's existence there had not been a hat trick by a defenseman until Michael Joyaux's on Saturday.
 
The hat trick was also the first of the year by a Bronco and the last since Hugh McGing ended the COVID-19 shortened 2019-20 season with one against Miami. Joyaux now has eight goals in his career but has only actually scored in four of the 76 games he has played for the Broncos. His freshman year he scored his only two goals of the season in a single game, a 4-2 win over North Dakota. Last season he also had two goals, both scored in a 6-2 win over St. Cloud State. Earlier this year he scored in a 6-5 loss to Omaha in the NCHC Pod, the only time he's scored a single goal in a game.
CAREER YEAR(S)
Although junior forward Drew Worrad had is point streak snapped in last Friday's loss, he ended up netting the game-winning goal in overtime on Saturday, scoring his fourth goal of the season. The goal also pushed his point total to a team-high 18 and a new career high, surpassing the 17 he put up last season. Worrad also has a career-high 14 assists this season.
 
Also on the verge of a career-best season in sophomore defenseman Ronnie Attard. Attard had two assists in Saturday's win, pushing his season point total to 14 on four goals and 10 assists. The Philadelphia Flyers' draft pick had 14 points last season on six goals and eight assists as a freshman.
 
SCOUTING THE BULLDOGS
Minnesota-Duluth heads into Friday's  game with a six-game winning streak that started with a sweep over the Broncos on Jan. 23-24. During the stretch they have allowed on average just 1.33 goals per game.
 
Four players have combined to score 38 of the team's 62 goals on the season. Junior Cole Koepke leads the team with 11, senior forward Kobe Roth is second on the team with 10, while senior forward Nick Swaney has nine and junior forward Jackson Cates has eight. No one else on the team has more than five. Swaney lead the team with 23 points and a team-high 14 assists, while Jackson Cates is second on the team with 19. Freshman Wyatt Kaiser has eight points, all assists, as the top point man from the blue line. UMD's defensemen have only scored two goals on the season.
 
Sophomore Ryan Fanti has started 15 games on the season with a 9-4-2 record, a 2.24 goals against average and a .911 save percentage. Freshman Zach Stejskal has made four starts with a 3-1-0 record with a 1.23 goals against average and a .951 save percentage. Both started games in the Bulldogs' sweep of Western Michigan.
 
UMD's power play sits at 21.9 percent (16-for-73) on the season. Jackson Cates leads the team with five tallies, while Swaney, Koepke and Noah Cates each have three. The penalty kill sits at 79.7 percent (59-for-74).
 
FINAL COUNTDOWN
After this weekend there are just two games left in the regular season. The Broncos host Miami on Friday, Feb. 26 and then travel to Oxford, Ohio to take on the RedHawks on Sunday, Feb. 28. Sunday's game at 2 p.m. can be seen live on CBS Sports Network.