D3 Hockey Earns First Win in Program History
(Howell, MI)-- The Cleary Cougar ACHA Division 3 hockey team played a pair of games vs. the Western Michigan University Stallions this weekend, and the Cougars would earn the D3's first ever victory in the process.
In Game 1 at WMU: After WMU scored the game's opening goal, Cleary would equalize later in the 1st period, as Joe Sherman scored, with assists from Brady Meyer and Nowell Snarey to tie the game at 1-1. Cleary would take the lead early in the 2nd period, when Ben Kozar scored his first goal of the game, with assists from Wayne Taiman and Brady Meyer, to give the Cougars a 2-1 lead. WMU would tie the game just a minute later, but Cleary would regain the goal advantage when Ben Kozar scored his second goal of the game, with an assist from Wayne Taiman, to make the score 3-2. Cleary was still in control until late in the 3rd period, when a penalty gave the Stallions a power play with 39 seconds remaining. The Stallions would equalize to force overtime, and eventually scored the game-winner with just under 1 minute remaining.
Kevin Berg suffered the loss in goal.
In Game 2 vs. WMU: Cleary got things going right away, as Brady Meyer freed up Ben Kozar with a beautiful pass to give Kozar a 1 vs the goalie, and Kozar won, scoring his first goal of the game, and giving Cleary an early 1-0 lead. With 4 minutes left in the 1st period, and with Cleary still leading, Kozar scored his second goal of the game, with an assist from Zach Eakes, to give Cleary a 2-0 lead into the first intermission. Neither team scored in the 2nd period, but WMU would narrow the deficit with 17 minutes left in the game to make it 2-1. This woke Cleary up, and the Cougars scored three 3rd period goals to take the victory, their first of the season, and in the program's history. Cleary's third goal was scored by Zach Eakes, with an assist from Brady Meyer. The fourth goal was scored by Quinn O'Connor, and was assisted by Logan Porter and Joe Sherman. The fifth goal was scored by Nowell Snarey, and was assisted by Wayne Taiman and Ben Kozar.
Kevin Berg earned the win, and was stellar in goal, as he made 51 saves on 52 shots to pick up his first career victory. Ben Kozar scored 4 goals in the series, and added an assist to lead the Cleary offense.
The D3 Cougars are now 1-5 on the season. They will be back in action next weekend with a pair of games vs. the Purdue Boilermakers. Cleary hosts Purdue at 140 Ice Den on Friday, November 11, and the puck drops at 8:00 PM.