THIS WEEK
Western Michigan continues National Collegiate Hockey Conference action this week at home, hosting Minnesota-Duluth on Friday at 7 p.m. and Saturday at 6 p.m. Both games can be watched live on NCHC.tv and heard live on the Bronco Media Network.
 
LAST WEEK
WMU went on the road in NCHC play for the first time this season, earning a split at No. 4 St. Cloud State.
 
The Broncos took Friday's contest, 4-2, scoring three times on the power play. Aidan Fulp and Jamie Rome both tallied with the man advantage in the final two minutes of the first period to send Western Michigan into the locker room with a 2-0 lead. St. Cloud got a goal back with a power play goal in the second period, but Max Sasson scored shortly into a major power play to push WMU's lead to 3-1. SCSU's Micah Miller scored short-handed just over a minute later to bring the Huskies back within one. Luke Grainger added an insurance goal at 13:06 in the third period, scoring in transition after a power play expired.
 
St. Cloud State scored just 1:05 into the first period and built its lead up to 3-0 heading into the third period. WMU pulled Cameron Rowe from net for the extra attacker and finally got on the board when Ryan McAllister scored at 16:42 to cut the lead to 3-1. The net remained empty for the Broncos and Jami Krannila took advantage of it to seal the game with his second goal of the night with 2:25 left to play.
 
FANTASTIC FRESHMAN
Ryan McAllister's blazing start to his college hockey career continued after posting three points in the weekend split with St. Cloud State. Through 13 games this season, the London, Ontario, native has put up 22 points on six goals and 16 assists. His 16 assists are first in the nation and his 22 points are second.  
 
So how good of a start is it for McAllister? Max Sasson was WMU's top-scoring freshman last season, posting 22 points in 37 games. McAllister already has the most points by a freshman dating back to the 2016-17 season, when Wade Allison had 29 points as a rookie. It took Allison 25 games to reach 22 points that year. McAllister has the potential to become the first Bronco freshman to reach 30 points since Chase Balisy tallied 30 during the 2010-11 season. WMU has not had a freshman post 40 points since Mark Letestu had 46 during the 2006-07 season and earning the CCHA Freshman of the Year award.
 
CAREER HIGH, ALREADY
Junior forward Luke Grainger had a breakout season in 2021-22, scoring 15 points on eight goals and seven assists. Grainger had a knack for scoring big goals, netting a hat trick in the NCHC Quarterfinals and then the game-winner in overtime in WMU's first-ever NCAA Tournament victory over Northeastern.
 
In just 13 games this season he's already posted a new career mark, tallying eight assists to go with his three goals. He sits just four points from tying his personal-best point mark.
 
LIMITING THE CHANCES
Western Michigan has played 39 periods of regulation hockey so far this season. The combination of an aggressive forecheck and puck possession has resulted in the Broncos limiting opponents to five or fewer shots in 14 of those periods. WMU has also allowed just one shot on goal in a period twice, including last Friday against No. 4 St. Cloud State.
 
THE MINNESOTA DULUTH BULLDOGS | 6-6-0, 2-2-0 NCHC
THE SERIES: Minnesota Duluth leads the all-time series at 26-14-3. The teams split the regular season at 2-2-0 last season, but the Bulldogs got the best of the Broncos in the NCHC Frozen Faceoff Championship game.
 
SCOUTING THE BULLDOGS: After opening the season with a sweep of Arizona State, the Bulldogs lost their next four games, suffering sweeps of their own against Minnesota State and Wisconsin. UMD righted the ship with a sweep of Cornell and opened NCHC play with splits at Colorado College and at home against Omaha.
 
Minnesota Duluth has struggled to score at times this season, averaging just 2.1 goals per game. Sophomore defenseman Owen Gallatin leads the team with eight points on two goals and a team-best six assists. Freshman forward Ben Steeves has a team-high six goals and has played in 10 of the 12 games so far this season. Miami RedHawk transfer Derek Daschke has seven points on two goals and five assists.
 
Defensively, UMD is giving up 2.8 goals per game. Junior Zach Stejskal has started in seven games between the pipes with a 3.27 goals against average, a .884 save percentage and a 3-4-0 record. Senior Matthew Thiessen has made five starts with a 1.66 goals against average, a .932 save percentage and a 3-2-0 record.
 
ON THE HORIZON
Western Michigan heads to Nashville, Tenn., and Bridgestone Arena for the Music City Holiday Classic on Friday, Nov. 25 to take on Northeastern at 7:30 p.m. ET.