6-1-1 START: Wildcat Hockey Beats UA-Huntsville

MARQUETTE---The Northern Michigan University hockey team improved to 6-1-1 on the season this weekend with a pair of wins over the University of Alamaba-Huntsville at the Berry Events Center.

NMU won on Friday, 5-3, then completed the sweep Saturday night with a 4-2 win.

SATURDAY NIGHT RECAP (NMU SPORTS INFORMATION)

No. 20/RV Northern Michigan hockey team (6-1-1, 4-0-0-0 WCHA) completed the sweep of Alabama Huntsville (0-8-0, 0-4-0-0 WCHA) Saturday night with a 4-2 victory, to claim sole possession of first-place in the WCHA standings.

In front of nearly 3,000 fans at the Berry Events Center (2,953), the Wildcats continued their winning ways, netting four goals, including a power play tally while Nolan Kent stopped 25 shots for his third win of the season.

The Wildcats opened the scoring when Vincent de Mey scored with the man advantage for his seventh goal of the season. The two teams would skate to a 1-1 tie through the first 20 minutes of play before two Wildcat goals in the second frame, from Caleb Schroer and Andre Ghantous, put Northern Michigan back on top heading into the final period.

Ghantous' goal proved to be the game-winner but Griffin Loughran netted the insurance goal on the empty net as the clock hit one minute remaining for the 4-2 final.

Vincent de Mey, on the poer play, wound up at the top of the far circle for a quick one-timer that beat Chargers' netminder Mark Sinclair stick side. Hank Sorensen fed de Mey the puck from the blue line while Ben Newhouse added the second assist for his fourth of the season.

Caleb Schroer broke the stalemate at 3:27 of the second period with a wrister that beat Sinclair. Nolan Kent picked up an assist on the play for his first career point.

Andre Ghantous put the Wildcats back on top with 13:15 elapsed in the middle frame with what would prove to be the game-winner. Grant Loven passed the puck to Philip Beaulieu for the wrap around pass to Ghantous out front. He buried his third goal of the season and second of the weekend to give Northern Michigan the 3-2 lead.

Griffin Loughran extended his point and goal streaks with the final goal of the game and his team-leading eighth of the season. Picking up the puck in his defensive zone, Loughran fired it down the ice and into the empty net to give the Wildcats the 4-2 victory. Darien Craighead and Rylan Yaremko both earned assists on the play.

With an undefeated streak of seven game, the Wildcats hold the longest streak in the nation with a 6-0-1 record in their last seven contests.

The Wildcats, now 4-0-0-0 in the WCHA stand alone in first in the conference with 12 points behind two straight sweeps.

Nolan Kent tallied his first career point, an assist, on the Wildcats' second goal of the game when he sent a loose puck towards Caleb Schroer up ice who buried it deep. He also stopped 25 of 27 shots and improved his overall record to 3-1-0. With a .926 save percentage in Saturday night's victory, Kent now holds a .892 save percentage in 2019-20 with a 3.26 goals against average.

Four Wildcats scored goals in the victory including de Mey, Ghantous, Loughran and Schroer while 10 individuals saw their name highlighted on the box score with points.

With points in Saturday night's victory, five members of the Wildcat squad are riding point streaks into next week's series. Griffin Loughran extended his streak to seven games (8-4-12) as well as a five-game goal streak with seven tallies.

Darien Craighead has posted at least one point in each of his last six (3-4-7) while Andre Ghantous is on a career-best four-game streak (3-1-4), including a two-game goal streak. Philip Beaulieu capped off a four-point weekend with an assist Saturday night for the two-game streak (1-3-4) and Rylan Yaremko has highlighted the box score in each of the last two games for his first points of the season (1-1-2).

With eight goals through eight games, Griffin Loughran is third nationally in goals per game (1.00).

Vincent de Mey leads the nation in power play tallies (4) following his goal with the man advantage in the opening frame Saturday night. Loughran is close behind with three total and fourth overall.

Andre Ghantous' game-winner on Saturday puts him 14th in the nation in game-winning goals (1). He is tied with fellow Wildcats Darien Craighead and Vincent de Mey.
Adding an assist to Ghantous' goal, Philip Beaulieu ranks 12th among all defensemen in points per game (1-7-8) and his 104 career points (21-83-104) ranks top among among defensemen.

With a .750 win percentage following the 4-2 victory, Nolan Kent ranks 15th in the nation among all netminders.

Averaging four goals per game, the Wildcats currently rank 8th in scoring offense and 15th in scoring margin (1.00). The team also sits eighth in the nation in win percentage at .812.

Northern Michigan continues its home stand next weekend when they host St. Cloud State for their final non-conference home series of the season.

FRIDAY NIGHT'S RECAP (NMU SPORTS INFORMATION)

The 20th-ranked Northern Michgan Wildcats (5-1-1, 3-0-0-0 WCHA) fought back Friday night to top the Alabama Huntsville Chargers (0-7-0, 0-3-0-0 WCHA), 5-3 in front of nearly 2,500 fans at the Berry Events Center.

After going down early in the first period, the Wildcats answered with a goal of their own to even things at one before the Chargers added another to carry the 2-1 lead into the first intermission.

The second period was all Northern Michigan as they tallied three goals during the middle frame for the 4-2 lead through 40 minutes.

The Chargers came within one at 6:25 of the third before Philip Beaulieu put the game away with an empty net goal with less than a minute to play for the 5-3 final.

John Hawthorne recorded his third victory of the year and remains undefeated with a 3-0-1 mark in four career starts.
Rylan Yaremko scored his first goal of the year with a tap in out front to knot the game, 1-1, at 8:08 of the first period. Joseph Nardi and Griffin Loughran picked up assists on the goal.

Loughran netted his team-leading seventh goal of the season, a power play goal as the man advantage expired. His redirect from the top of crease beat the Chargers goaltender just 57 seconds into the second period. Philip Beaulieu added the primary assist, for his 101st career point, while Ty Readman picked up the other helper.

Andre Ghantous put the Wildcats ahead with 2:02 elapsed in the middle frame off Beaulieu's pass at center ice. Ghantous carried the puck across the blue line and fired it deep glove side for the 3-2 lead.

Darien Craighead extended the Wildcats' lead to two goals, finding the back of the net off Loughran's pass to the top of the circle.

Philip Beaulieu concluded the scoring for the night when he intercepted a shot in his defensive circle, firing the puck the length of the ice for the empty net goal and his first of the season.

Rookie netminder John Hawthorne extended his undefeated streak to four games with 29 saves in Friday's win. He now boasts a .917 save percentage on the season and averages 2.45 goals against per game.

The Wildcats were 1/4 on the power play behind Griffin Loughran's tally while keeping the Chargers scoreless on their six attempts with the man advantage.

Both teams tallied 32 shots on goal which included a career-high 14 saves in the third period for Hawthorne to come out victorious.

Vincent de Mey and Rylan Yaremko both posted four shots on goal in the win, the most of any Wildcats while Griffin Loughran led the team in plus/minus with a +4 on-ice rating.

With three points off a goal and two assists, both Loughran and Beaulieu tied for the team-lead in points Friday night. Loughran is now on a six-game point streak (7-4-11) and has six points in his last two games.

Darien Craighead (5 gm, 3-3-6), Joseph Nardi (5 gm, 1-5-6), Ty Readman (4 gm, 1-3-4) all extended their season-long point streaks with the win while Andre Ghantous' goal puts him on a three-game streak (2-1-3).