Coming off a 4-1 victory against the University of New Hampshire, Eastern Washing entered the game against the one-loss Chippewas with a lot of confidence. Forty seconds into the first period, the Eagles scored the game’s first goal when senior winger Kris Boyce’s shot went behind CMU goalie Matt Darr. Boyce added a second goal with two minutes left in the second to give EWU a 2-0 lead.

The second period started with CMU facing a two goal deficit and the choice to roll over and give up its chances at a championship, or fight back, play its style of hockey and keep national championship dreams alive.

CMU and the Eagles traded scoring opportunities throughout the period, until CMU senior captain Jordan Jakubik scored twice and freshman Evan Loughman added a third late in the period to take a 3-2 lead heading into the third.

CMU added two more goals in the third and earned a tough 5-3 win against EWU. But the team could only celebrate for a few moments before having to focus on the third team in their round robin group, the University of New Hampshire. To have a chance to advance to the semifinals, CMU was once again facing a must-win game.

In the first period, Jakubik took little time to find the back of the net, scoring five minutes into the game off an assist from junior Taylor Turner. The one goal lead stood until in the second period when the Wildcats tied the game.

CMU continued to look for a way back into the lead and in the closing minutes of the period, Nick Badder scored his first goal and added his second early in the third period.

CMU carried a 3-1 lead with 13 minutes left in the game.

“I thought we were going to win for sure,” Badder said. “We just did not play well in our own zone in the third.”

Things looked good early in the third, but only one minute after Badder’s second goal, UNH scored to cut CMU’s lead to one goal. The Wildcats scored again 47 seconds to the tie game and shift momentum into their favor.

For the rest of the period, everything CMU tried on the ice failed and UNH scored five consecutive to end the game, including an empty net goal with three seconds left.

Although the trip to San Jose, Calif., was not a success for CMU on the scoreboard, the season proved to be a memorable one. Their appearance at the American Collegiate Hockey Association national finals was the first in five years.

“It was a great season and I never thought we would have done so well,” Badder said. “The team is looking forward to next season and should be better than ever next year in just losing two players.”

Now, the CMU club hockey team can start packing its bags with T-shirts and suntan lotion after this weekend.

The team started their first game Saturday against Illinois State, running on adrenaline as the puck dropped on center ice. It didn’t take long for them to find themselves on the scoreboard, when in the first period captain Jordan Jakubik scored the game’s first goal and gave CMU a 1-0 lead.

In the second period, Illinois State tied the game but CMU answered back with two goals and held a 3-1 lead going into the third period. Then it took over with, an explosion of offense and scored four more goals in the third to put the game out of reach and kept their championship hopes alive.

“We were all excited for the opportunity,” said Jakubik, who scored two goals and added an assist. “ We knew we just needed one more win to go to San Jose.”

After winning their first game Saturday, CMU drew Southern Illinois University for Sunday’s game. Right away, the offense picked up right where they left off and the team scored three goals in the first period. Costly penalties and a penalty shot let Southern Illinois battle back into the game in the second period, tying the game at 5.

SIU then added another goal in the third to take the lead and and apparent control of the game. Lesnau answered back with a goal of his own, while Jakubik scored an empty net goal to secure the win.

Jakubik finished the game with three goals and one assist, while Lesnau had one goal and three assists.

CMU won both games and is now going to San Jose, Calif., later this month for a chance to win the American Club Hockey Association National Championship.

“We started the year off a little shaky but we came together and everyone did their roles,” Lesnau said. “It’s almost unreal. It took five years to get here, but I couldn’t ask for a better team to go with.”

Head coach Mike Willett also credits great goaltending from freshman Matt Darr for winning the two games in Chicago. Willett’s first year as head coach has been nothing but successful as CMU prepares to make the trip out west.

“He has been a great coach and is committed to his job and that is what this team needs,” Lesnau said. “He knows the game well, everyone respects him and I wouldn’t want any other coach to lead us at nationals.”

No one on the team has ever been to nationals before, but CMU looks to combat the inexperience with hard work at practice and keeping in shape during the time off on spring break.

CMU will have to be on top of their game to go to nationals and be competitive.

“We got to play consistently well in every game and play with no mistakes,” Willett said. “It’s going to be a higher level of competition and a good challenge for this team.”

Nationals begins March 15th with a total of 16 teams playing for the championship. CMU will be placed in a four-team pool, with the leader of the round robbin-style pool will be placed in the semifinals.

“If someone would have told me this would have happened in August when we picked the team, I would have called you crazy,” said junior Nick Badder. “We bought into what the coach said and now we are California bound. Our work isn’t done though, (it’s) time to work even harder and win nationals.”

This weekend, the seventh ranked Chippewas are travel to Chicago, Ill., to play for their chance to go to nationals. The team opens up against Illinois State.

This week during practice CMU has continued to work on team defense.

“We are repeating what we’ve been working on and trying to build up confidence,” Head Coach Mike Willett said. “We have also been working on winning close games and been aggressive through all 60 minutes.” In the locker room, players seem to be looking only at Saturdays game verse sixth ranked Illinois State University and not at the possibility of going to nationals.

“I really feel like have a great chance,” said senior Mike Lesnau. “We look forward to showing (CMU) that we are for real.”

During the regular season, CMU played ISU once and defeated them at home by a score of 6-5.

“We are a completely different team since the last time we played them,” Willett said. “The team has tightened down every aspect of our game and they are going to see a different style from a different team. We are better now and if we can play our game we are going to win by two, three, maybe even four goals.”

Senior captain Jordan Jakubik has been on the past three teams that went to regionals and is one of the most experienced players on the team.

“This team has one of the best chances CMU has had to get to nationals and we have already beaten the top teams,” Jakubik said. “We have a little more depth this year but need our goaltending and team defense to do well which is what hurt us in the past.”

If CMU can defeat Illinois State on Saturday, they will play another game Sunday. If it wins both games, it will earn a trip to San Jose, Calif., for nationals beginning March 1⁵. If they lose Saturday, then CMU’s hockey season is over and will leave players wondering what could have been.

The team will start freshman goalie Matt Darr with the impressive record of 8-2. Being the first season with coach Willett behind the bench, going to nationals was not a surprise, rather an expectation for him this season.

“The team should be going to regionals and are much better as a team,” Willett said. “ The team cannot be complacent with just getting to regionals, the true goal is to get to go  to nationals.”

On Friday in Kalamazoo, the team was almost always the first one to get to the loose puck and it showed on the score board, as CMU carried a 2-1 lead going into the second period.

In the second, the team stepped up its game and dominated time on attack, taking a four-goal lead into the third.

“It was one of our strongest second periods of the season,” said head coach Mike Willett. “In the third, however, we looked like a totally different team.”

CMU began the third period complacent with its four-goal lead and the sense of urgency was lost on the bench. They weren’t getting to loose pucks as fast as they were earlier in the game and the Broncos capitalized.

While the Broncos made a comeback, tying the game at 7, CMU responded with a late goal to win 8-7.

“We had our good periods and we took a few off and the bad ones hurt us,” said senior Mike Lesnau. “We need to start playing a full 60 minutes if we are going to get to nationals.”

Saturday

As Saturday’s game started, CMU started the game off even stronger than Friday.

CMU capitalized on two early scoring opportunities and carried a 2-0 lead going into the second.

Five minutes into the second, WMU capitalized on an early scoring opportunity. For the next 10 minutes, the Broncos dominated the ice. They scored four times in the second and held a one-goal lead over CMU going into the third.

In the third, CMU tried to fight back but couldn’t top WMU’s defense , coming up empty on scoring chances. Both teams traded goals but the game was over after the Broncos scored an empty net goal with less than a minute remaining to finish with a 6-4 win.

“This weekend’s lesson to the team is that we need to play hard for all 60 minutes,” Willett said. “The bench is as positive as it could be, everyone is buying into the system, and if we do play hard for the full 60 minutes we can beat anyone.”

Saturday’s game at the Mount Pleasant Ice Arena was the last home game for seniors Mike Lesnau and Jordan Jakubik. Unfortunately, their last memory will be one of a loss.

“Losing is always a disappointment,” Jakubik said. “But we’ll move forward and get ready for the playoffs.”

CMU’s playoff seed won’t be known until later this week, but the feeling in the locker room is that whoever they play, the team has a chance to win.

“My confidence in the team is at its highest point,” Willett said. “The team has a serious chance to get to nationals and I believe the team will be there in the end.”

Before the regional playoffs later this month, the team has two games against rival Western Michigan.

The first game is set for 7:30 p.m. Friday in Kalamazoo, with another scheduled for 4 p.m. Saturday at Mount Pleasant Ice Arena.

“This is a very important game to the players,” said center Nick Badder. “There is a huge rivalry against Western and we want to end the season on a high note before regionals.”

WMU, a Division I team, needs to win this weekend for a chance to make it into the playoffs.

“They are a pretty talented team ranked 20th in Division 1,” said head coach Mike Willett. “It’s a rivalry game, so anything can go and I’m excited to see how well we match up with them.”

Last Friday, the latest rankings came out and put the Chips ninth overall in the Central region.

“We are probably better then ninth, but even if we were ranked higher we would still need to win two games in Chicago to get to the finals,” Willett said.

The ranking is high enough for the team to go to regionals, but not high enough by the team’s standards.

“There is no reason for our ranking to be so low,” Badder said. “I think we should be at least seventh or eighth, but we just got to prove that their wrong in regionals.”

Closing out career

With this being the last two games of the season, this will also be the last time senior players will have a chance to play hockey for CMU.

“It is unreal, I ask myself where has the five years gone,” said senior Mike Lesnau. “I’ve been through a lot of ups and downs playing here but I wouldn’t change it for anything.”

Emotions will be running high for Lesnau and senior captain Jordan Jakubik.

“I have been playing with Jordan for eight years on the same line,” Lesnau said. “We realize that it’s our last chance to go to nationals. Its also the last time I’ll be wearing the No. 11 Chippewa jersey.”

Preparing for these rivalry games is tough and the team continued to work on their power play in practice this week, putting a big stress on zone defensive coverage.

“We just have to worry about not making to many mistakes,” Willett said. “The team is trying to get geared up to the playoffs and this weekend we need to make the sure play on the ice.”

This weekend, the CMU club hockey team was defeated by a lack of discipline and penalties in both games. It took someone to step up the game toward the end of Saturday’s game to pull out a victory in Romulus against Eastern Michigan.

Friday’s game stared off on the wrong foot when second line center Nick Badder was thrown out of the game in the first period after hitting an opposing player from behind.

“I didn’t think I deserved to get kicked out,” Badder said. “But I guess that’s the rule for any hit from behind.”

From there, it only got worse for CMU as a total of 61 penalty minutes were compiled throughout the game. The 61 minutes comprised of four 10-minute game misconducts, a five additional minutes from Badder being kicked out of the game and eight different minor penalties.

“I need to be able to trust my players to not make stupid mistakes on the ice,” said head coach Mike Willett. “If you’re going to do stupid stuff on the ice, you better learn the lesson or else I’ll help you learn the lesson.”

It seemed as though the penalty box bench was never cold. The amount sounds even more astonishing considering that the game is only 60 minutes long.

“Usually, I call out lines from the bench, but this game I was calling out names to go out on the ice,” Willett said. “It’s hard to come back against a Division I school but when you’re putting lines on the ice where some players have never played with each other. It’s almost impossible.”

CMU did manage to score once in the second period with a Brad Terberg goal and twice in the third with goals from Thomas Murphy and David Sitarski, but it was not enough as the team fell by the final of 6-3.

“Certain people need to learn to keep their mouth shut, play hockey and avoid stupid penalties,” said captain Jordan Jakubik. “We feel confident against any team five on five, so we just got to stay out of the box to have success.”

The team entered Saturday’s game with a new frame of mind — staying out of the penalty box.

Before the game, freshman forward Ricky Jones uttered the phrase, “the classier team will win the game.”

As a result, CMU played a more cleaner brand of hockey. It took an early lead on a Thomas Murphy power play goal early in the first period off a one-timer at the top right of the net. Five minutes later, Badder scored and added to the lead.

At the beginning of the third period, CMU found itself up 3-1. EMU would not go quitely, though, eventually tying the game up at 3. The team took another penalty and found themselves short-handed, but Jakubik was ready to put the game into his own hands and soon had the puck on his stick on a breakaway.

“I forced the defenseman to turn the puck over in our zone and got a nice pass from Mike Lesnau that gave me a breakaway,” Jakubik said. “I beat the goalie low blocker.”

CMU held on to the 4-3 score to pick up the win and split the weekend.

“We got a great team that knows how to win,” Willett said. “The team just needs to clean up a few small areas and I feel good about where the team is at this point of the season.”

After failing to gain any points last weekend against Grand Valley State, the team travels down state for a two-game set with rival Eastern Michigan. Both games will be played at The Peak at Summit Ice Academy in Romulus. Game 1 is scheduled for 8 p.m. today, with Game 2 to be played at 4 p.m. Saturday.

“We are looking forward to two tough games and we’re trying to get some big wins,” said captain Jordan Jakubik, who sits second in the American Collegiate Hockey Association with 71 points. “The team needs to help its ranking and get ready for regionals.”

CMU is currently ranked ninth in the Central Division, but the games will not be easy. Despite a 6-20 record, EMU is a Division 1 team and plays tougher competition.

“Nobody wants to lose to a team that’s a division lower than you,” said CMU head coach Mike Willett. I don’t think it’s going to be a big issue, though, and we got a good chance to win both games this weekend.”

Last weekend’s loss against Grand Valley snapped a 10-game winning streak, but the players are looking to achieve more. The team is 6-5 on the road, outscoring their opponents 59-54.

“The team is almost there and we have been happy with the way we have been play,” said Jakubik, who also is third in the ACHA with 42 assists. “This weekend will show us if we can bounce back after a tough loss. We need to show more discipline and play better team defense.”

And this weekend in practice, CMU has been working on team defense and getting the puck out of its zone.

The current ranking period ends Monday and if the team can come away with two wins against a Division 1 team, they should move up.

As of now, the are in the playoffs, scheduled to begin at the end of February in Chicago.

CMU went into its game against Grand Valley State on Friday looking to continue a season-high 10-game winning streak.

The chances of a win looked good early when it scored during the third shift of the game, but the Lakers quickly answered back with a goal of their own, tying the game at one.

In the second period the close game play continued and the team capitalized on a scoring chance to make the score 2-1 entering the third period.

But it was the third period that cost CMU, as the Lakers scored four goals to pull ahead and earn a 5-3 win.

“The power plays against us really hurt us,” said head coach Mike Willett. “We should have beaten them and continued the streak.”

CMU played without team captain and scoring leader Jordan Jakubik.

To combat his loss, the CMU coaching staff switched up a couple of lines to better work the game plan.

“This game was a great opportunity to prove to the league that we could win without Jordan,” Willett said. “I’m not disappointed in the effort from the team, I’m just disappointed we couldn’t come out with the win.”

With their 10-game win streak snapped and the feeling of defeat in the locker room, the team was looking to get their revenge Saturday when they were to play GVSU for the second time of the weekend.

There was just one problem, the game never happened.

Officially, the game was canceled due to weather and the Lakers’ safety on the drive home from the game Friday night.

Several CMU players, however, have their own opinion on why the game was canceled.

“I have never been so upset at another opponent in my life,” said junior Nick Badder. “They blamed it on the weather, but it was blue skies and sunny. They knew they were going to lose and didn’t want the loss to hurt their ranking.”

The current ranking period closed last Sunday and a win the day before could have given CMU a boost in the rankings. A make-up date for the game has not officially been set yet.

“We’ve gotten good goaltending and good team defense,” said captain Jordan Jakubik. “All four lines are contributing and scoring goals as well.”

After quickly shaking off the rust from break with a clean sweep against No. 16 Robert Morris, the team feels confident going into this weekend’s games.

“At first we came out flat in the first game but really picked it up in the third period,” said head coach Mike Willett said. “This weekend the team will be back to full force and I think the team is meshing together better than other teams around the league. The lockerroom is a good place to be and the bench is being very supportive.”

CMU will face off against No. 15 University of Minnesota at home at 9 p.m. today and 4 p.m. Saturday. The team is considered the favorite heading into the weekend.

“The team just needs to keep doing what were doing and stay out of the penalty box and play defense,” said junior Nick Badder. “We know we can score on anyone, we just have to prove that we can play both ends of the ice.”

CMU is still ranked ninth after the second rankings were issued, despite the team beating higher ranked teams like No. 8 Illinois State University and No. 5 Michigan.

“We should be ranked higher and we are gaining points on Illinois State,” Willett said. “As long as we are in the top 10 we are where we want to be; once we are in the playoffs it only takes two wins to get to the championship finals.”

If the team continues to play their defense-first style of hockey well, they should come out of this weekend with two more victories and a win streak of ten games.

“This weekend is just like any other weekend for us,” Jakubik said, “The team has a lot of confidence and everyone wants to keep the winning streak going.”

Over the break CMU has added three players; forward Ricky Jones, defender Taylor Turner and goalie Cody Lindhorst to get them to the next level.

One of the reasons for the current win streak is the leadership and skill of Jakubik. As of right now, Jakubik leads the ACHA Central Region with 67 points.

“He’s always one play ahead now,” Willett said. “Its great for him and his play continues to get better.”

And it showed as soon as the team hit the ice, pulling off the upset with a 6-5 win at Mount Pleasant Ice Arena.

Illinois State had already won two games earlier in the weekend and was looking for a weekend sweep Sunday against CMU. Both teams came out firing and capitalized on early scoring chances.

“We came out early in the game with a hit-them-hard mentality,” said CMU head coach Mike Willett. “The team wanted to jump out to an early lead.”

At the end of the first the score was tied 2-2. When the second period started, Illinois State jumped on top by scoring two goals that forced the Chippewas to find an answer offensively.

“We weren’t playing badly, we had five minutes of solid play with a one minute break and somehow they found the back of the net,” Willett said. “It was really frustrating, but the team kept its no-highs, no-lows mentality and we brushed it off.”

CMU regrouped and scored four consecutive goals in the final four minutes of the second period, putting CMU up by two goals entering the third period.

“Usually we run lines one, two, three, four, but I could see that lines one and two had something going and we kept putting the first and second lines on the ice,” Willett said. “The two lines took over and we continued to score quickly.”

The two-goal lead was cut in half when the Redbirds added a goal in the third period, but the CMU defense held strong and defended the one goal lead.
The win comes off a victory against third-ranked Michigan State last weekend.

“We didn’t play our best game but still came out with a win,” said captain Jordan Jakubik. “We outplayed them and doubled them in shots; we got two big wins the last two weekends.”

Goalie change

One of the contributing factors in the win was a goaltender change made by Willett before the game. Instead of freshman Brandon Allor starting between the pipes, sophomore Zach Silver started for the CMU.

Allor’s average goals against this season is 6.30 with a save percentage of only 63 percent.

“Its my own fault,” Allor said about the change at goalie. “I’m in a slump and I’m working hard to fix some of the issues I have been having.”

Allor is also dealing with a groin injury that has been hampering his game play. Its Silver’s spot to lose after his great performance against the Redbirds.

“We have a lot of practices until our next game,” Willett said. “If he give us a reason to remove him from the starting goalie position, he will be starting our next game against Ferris State.”

CMU has a week off before hosting Ferris State at 4 p.m. on Dec. 4 at the Mount Pleasant Ice Arena.