Central club hockey splits with nation's No. 1
Davenport University arrived with two regular season losses when it came to Mount Pleasant for Saturday's game against the CMU club hockey team.
It returned to Grand Rapids with three.
CMU beat the nation's No. 1 Division II American Collegiate Hockey Association team 4-1 at the Isabella County Events Arena.
"I didn't think we had that game won until about three minutes left with a three-goal lead," said head coach Craig Lipar. "It's always said a two-goal lead is the worst in
hockey because you get that confidence and start to let up and then the other team gets a goal and then scores again."
Central took an early lead on a turnover in front of Davenport goalie Scott Knight. Forward Matt Lamore took a quick shot that went under the arm of Knight for an early 1-0 less than three minutes into the game.
"The defensive play was great," Lipar said. "I don't even remember the last time we gave up just one goal."
Central (14-15) lost Friday in Grand Rapids by a 7-4 score. CMU players said they were satisfied with the pressure they put on Davenport on both ends of the ice despite the loss.
Davenport head coach Paul Lowden said CMU played well all weekend.
"They earned a split - they played hard" he said. "(Saturday), they won a lot of the little battles they need to - threw a lot of pucks at our net."
Davenport (29-3) has 12 players with 20 points or more - including two players who are have more than 50 points in 38 games.
Lowden said the big problem with Saturday was the lack of emotion or "heart" with which his team usually competes.
"If you had seen 35 games of ours this year you would look at this game and say it probably lacked emotion on our side," he said.
During the second period, Davenport forward Jonah Rogowski had an exchange with CMU goalie Willie Mistretta - who had 27 saves Saturday -- on the ice and continued yelling across the ice at Mistretta from the Davenport bench.
sports@cm-life.com
