With time winding down and the game tied at three, Central Michigan Division III club hockey senior defenseman Charlie Hayes fired a shot on net sailing past Saginaw Valley State freshman goaltender Petr Mehall giving the Chippewas a 4-3 lead.

Despite the late third-period goal, the Chippewas fell to the Cardinals with a final score of 6-5.

The Chippewas fall to 7-4-1 on the season.

In the battle for starting goalie, senior Loren Jones got the start in net on Friday. Jones's record falls to 4-4 on the season.

“Loren played good tonight,” said head coach Tyler Cataline. “He (Loren) had some good saves, but we need to play better in front of him.”

As time wound down in the first period, neither team had anything to show for its efforts despite a back-and-forth battle on the ice.

Going behind the net and keeping control of the puck as Cardinal’s defenders were at his heels, senior forward Ben Hryciuk found the stick of freshman forward Andrew Szarki. Turned away from the net, Szarki used his backhand to fire a shot on the net, beating the Cardinals goaltender and opening the scoring for the Chippewas.

“Ben is just electric,” Cataline said. “He is the guy that just goes and goes and the other guys feed off of that.”

It looked as if the Chippewas were going into the second period up by one, but a late slapshot from junior forward Brendan Dickinson of the Cardinals would sneak past Loren Jones and tie the game 1-1.

“Our team is used to getting scored on in the final three minutes of periods lately,” Cataline said. “We need to clean that up big time. We talked about it in the locker and how two out of the three periods we got scored on in the final minutes. It is something that we need to clean up big time.”

Energized from their late first-period goal, Aaron Shain would give the Cardinals their first lead of the game just two minutes into the period. Kieran Carlie would add to the scoring for SVSU on a powerplay goal as Nathan Bottles was assessed a five-minute major for crosschecking, making the score 3-1.

With Bottles still in the box, senior forward Andrew Porzondek skated his way into the Cardinals zone with a Saginaw defender slashing at his skates. With only the goalie to beat, he fired a shot on net hitting the crossbar before finding the back of the net making it a 3-2 going into the third period.

“It doesn’t matter if it is five on five or four on five, we expect that out of (Andrew) Porzondek every game and every weekend,” Cataline said.

Halfway through the third period, freshman forward Conner Morgan tied the game at three for the Chippewas. Just under a minute later Hayes gave CMU its second lead of the game. Senior defenseman Kyle Kubiak quickly responded for the Cardinals tying the game back up at four. Less than a minute later freshman forward Logan O’Flanagan snuck one past Jones to give them the 5-4 lead.

With time winding down and the game leaning towards the Cardinal's win, Szarki netted his second of the night to tie the game back up at five.

As time wound down, it looked as if the Chippewas and Cardinals were heading to overtime. With fourteen seconds left on the clock, senior forward Matt McClellan became the hero securing the 6-5 victory for the Cardinals.

The Chippewas have a quick turnaround as they travel to Saginaw to take on the Cardinals on their home ice tomorrow. Puck drop is set for 9:30 p.m.